%0 Journal Article %T Procalcitonin neutralizes bacterial LPS and reduces LPS-induced cytokine release in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells %A Giovanni Matera %A Angela Quirino %A Aida Giancotti %A Maria Concetta Pulicari %A Linda Rametti %A Maria Luz Rodr¨ªguez %A Maria Carla Liberto %A Alfredo Foc¨¤ %J BMC Microbiology %D 2012 %I BioMed Central %R 10.1186/1471-2180-12-68 %X PCT significantly decreased (p£¿<£¿0.05) the limulus amoebocyte lysate (LAL) assay reactivity of LPS from both Salmonella typhimurium (rough chemotype) and Escherichia coli (smooth chemotype). Subsequently, the in vitro effects of PCT on LPS-induced cytokine release were studied in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). When LPS was pre-incubated for 30 minutes with different concentrations of PCT, the release of interleukin-10 (IL-10) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF¦Á) by PBMC decreased in a concentration-dependent manner after 24 hours for IL-10 and 4 hours for TNF¦Á. The release of monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) exhibited a drastic reduction at 4 hours for all the PCT concentrations assessed, whereas such decrease was concentration-dependent after 24 hours.This study provides the first evidence of the capability of PCT to directly neutralize bacterial LPS, thus leading to a reduction of its major inflammatory mediators. %U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2180/12/68/abstract