Surgery is followed by an acute-phase response, including hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis activation and fever. Considering its physiological properties and its behaviour in plasma after stress and surgery, the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-6 is a putative candidate in eliciting these stress-related symptoms. However, evidence for this hypothesis is lacking. Rats subjected to individual psychological stress for 1h were injected intraperitoneally with saline or 3.33 microg per 100g rat neutralizing antibodies against rat IL-6. Thereafter, the single-housed rats were anaesthetized for 25 min, with or without undergoing a laparotomy. Intermittently, oesophageal temperatures were measured at defined time points. A parallel group of rats undergoing the same study protocol were decapitated, at time points when body temperatures differed, to obtain blood for measurement of plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone and corticosterone. Individual housing resulted in hyperthermia. Antibodies against IL-6 accelerated normalization of body temperature after individualizing stress, limited postoperative hyperthermia after laparotomy, but accentuated hyperthermia after anaesthesia alone. Antibody administration was not able to significantly influence the plasma hormone levels during any experiment. The present study indicates that IL-6 is a thermoregulatory factor during psychological, anaesthesiological and surgical stress, but the cytokine does not participate in HPA-axis activation until 6h after anaesthesia or surgery. A dose-finding study with antibodies against IL-6 ought to further identify the degree of contribution of IL-6 to perioperative thermoregulation.
