Alteration of muscle membrane excitability in sepsis: Possible involvement of ciliary nervous trophic factor (CNTF)

•CNTF decreases muscle excitability by an early, post-transcriptional effect.•This effect is due to a decrease in sodium current and an increase in resting potential.•It appears to be mediated by PKC induced phosphorylations.•It could be involved in acquired polyneuromyopathy syndrome.

One of the main factor involved neuromyopathy acquired in intensive care unit (ICU) appears to be sepsis. It induces the release of many pro- and anti-inflammatory factors which can directly modulate the muscle excitability. We have studied the effects of one of them: the ciliary nervous trophic factor (CNTF) which is a cytokine released in the early phase of sepsis.CNTF induces a decrease in the sodium current and an increase in resting potential as in sodium inversion potential. These effects could participate to the hypo-excitability observed during sepsis and could be involved in the ICU acquired neuromyopathy. As for TNFα, this early effect is mainly mediated by protein kinase C (PKC) activation and appears to be a reversible post-transcriptional effect.