Effects of prednisolone on the systemic release of mediators of cell-mediated cytotoxicity during human endotoxemia.

Corticosteroids are widely used for the suppression of cell-mediated cytoxicity. This process is mediated by natural killer cells and cytotoxic T lymphocytes, and their activation can be monitored by levels of the chemokines CXCL9 and CXCL10, the degranulation product granzymes A and B, and by levels of secretory phospholipase A2. The current study aimed to determine the effects of increasing doses of prednisolone on the release of these mediators in healthy humans exposed to LPS.