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424 Liraglutide protects against microvascular dysfunction and sepsis-mediated inflammation and organ injury

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2025

David Aslaner
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University Medical Center (Department of Medicine, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology)
Brandon Baer
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University Medical Center (Department of Medicine, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology)
Jamie E. Meegan
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University Medical Center (Department of Medicine, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology)
Lorraine B. Ware
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University Medical Center (Department of Medicine, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology) Department of Cell and Developmental Biology
Julie A. Bastarache
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University Medical Center (Department of Medicine, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology) Department of Cell and Developmental Biology Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology; Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, 37203
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Abstract

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Objectives/Goals: • To determine the impact of liraglutide on inflammation and organ injury during sepsis. • To investigate the protective effects of liraglutide on microvascular dysfunction in a clinically relevant model of sepsis. • To provide evidence for the potential therapeutic use of GLP-1 receptor agonists in endothelial dysfunction in sepsis. Methods/Study Population: Sepsis was induced in mice (N = 34) by intraperitoneal injection of cecal contents (1.8 mg/g body weight) and 24-hour hyperoxia (FiO2 90–95%). Mice received saline or liraglutide (0.1 mg/kg) at 6 and 18 hours post-injection and fluids and antibiotics at 12 hours. At 24 hours, mice were euthanized for plasma, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), and tissue collection. Plasma inflammatory markers, organ injury markers, and BAL components were measured. In vitro, primary human lung microvascular endothelial cells (HLMVECs) were treated with saline or liraglutide for 24 hours before exposure to saline or LPS (100 ng/mL). HLMVEC barrier dysfunction was evaluated using express permeability testing (XPerT) and electric cell-substrate impedance sensing (ECIS) to measure transendothelial electrical resistance (TER). Results/Anticipated Results: In murine sepsis, illness severity scores and lung injury were improved in mice pretreated with liraglutide (N = 10). Plasma blood urea nitrogen (BUN; P = 0.0036), alanine transaminase (ALT; P = 0.0311) and vascular inflammatory markers MCP-1 (P = 0.0172), ICAM-1 (P = 0.0356), and Pecam-1 (P = 0.0493) in plasma were reduced in mice treated with liraglutide. In HLMVECs, liraglutide (1.5 nM) significantly reduced LPS-induced barrier dysfunction measured by XPerT assay (P = 0.0030) and ECIS (P = 0.0075). Discussion/Significance of Impact: Liraglutide reduces illness severity, vascular inflammation, and organ injury in a two-hit model of sepsis. Liraglutide has direct effects in the microvascular endothelium, limiting LPS-mediated barrier dysfunction. These findings support a protective role for GLP-1 receptor agonism in sepsis, mediated through the microvasculature.

Type
Other
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. The Association for Clinical and Translational Science