The clinical response of
sepsis to a systemic inflammatory
infection may be complicated by
disseminated intravascular coagulation or
DIC. In order to experimentally study the syndrome of
DIC, we aimed for a
severe sepsis model complicated by disseminated coagulation. Most-simplified-experimental models describing coagulation abnormalities as a consequence of
sepsis are based on single dose
endotoxemia. The so called-
Shwartzman reaction contrarily, is elicited by a low dose
endotoxin priming followed by an LPS challenge and is characterized by pathological manifestations that represent the syndrome of
DIC. In order to investigate whether the
Shwartzman reaction is superior to a single
endotoxin challenge as a model for
sepsis-induced
DIC and to determine what the pathological effect is of an encounter of low
endotoxin prior to an LPS challenge, we undertook the present study. In this study we demonstrate that low-dose
endotoxin priming prior to an LPS challenge in the
Shwartzman reaction is accountable for micro-vascular
thrombosis in lung and liver and subsequent (multi-) organ failure, not observed after a single-dose
endotoxin challenge, which indicates that the
Shwartzman reaction is well suited-model to study
sepsis-induced
DIC adversities. Remarkably, only minor differences in the innate immune response were established between the single-dose
endotoxin challenge and the
Shwartzman reaction.