No good deed goes unpunished!

Excerpt

Adrenergic neuroendocrine mediators, such as dopamine are not only important endogenous central mediators of vascular reactivity and tone but are also commonly utilized agents applied in the clinical setting to stabilize the cardiovascular condition of the critically ill/septic patient. However, what has largely been overlooked is that these agents can have a variety of nonvasoactive effects, the consequences of which may be significant and are often unappreciated. In this regard Oberbeck and colleagues [1] now report in Intensive Care Medicine that administration of low-dose dopamine provided by continuous infusion by micro-osmotic minipump (1 μg/kg bodyweight per minute, intraperitoneally) produces marked suppression of splenic immune cell, i.e., T-cell, proliferative, and Th1 cytokine responsiveness. Further, this suppression is markedly potentiated in septic animals along with the onset of splenocyte apoptosis. Most importantly, the addition of low-dose dopamine infusion in these mice culminated in a decrease in their survival following sepsis. …