Exogenous ketone ester administration attenuates systemic inflammation and reduces organ damage in a lipopolysaccharide model of sepsis.

Aims: Sepsis is a life-threatening condition of organ dysfunction caused by dysregulated inflammation which predisposes patients to developing cardiovascular disease. The ketone β-hydroxybutyrate is reported to be cardioprotective in cardiovascular disease and this may be due to their signaling properties that contribute to reducing inflammation. While exogenous ketone esters (KE) increase blood ketone levels, it remains unknown whether KEs can reduce the enhanced inflammatory response and multi-organ dysfunction that is observed in sepsis. Thus, this study assesses whether a recently developed and clinically safe KE can effectively improve the inflammatory response and organ dysfunction in sepsis.

Methods And Results: To assess the anti-inflammatory effects of a KE, we utilized a model of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced sepsis in which an enhanced inflammatory response results in multi-organ dysfunction. Oral administration of KE for three days prior to LPS-injection significantly protected mice against the profound systemic inflammation compared to their vehicle-treated counterparts. In assessing organ dysfunction, KE protected mice from sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction as well as renal dysfunction and fibrosis. Furthermore, KE administration attenuated the sepsis-induced inflammation in the heart, kidney, and liver. Moreover, these protective effects occurred independent of changes to enzymes involved in ketone metabolism.

Conclusion: These data show that the use of an exogenous KE attenuates the dysregulated systemic and organ inflammation as well as organ dysfunction in a model of severe inflammation. We postulate that this exogenous KE is an appealing and promising approach to capitalize on the protective anti-inflammatory effects of ketones in sepsis and/or other inflammatory responses.