Transvenous vagus nerve stimulation does not modulate the innate immune response during experimental human endotoxemia: a randomized controlled study.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) exerts beneficial anti-inflammatory effects in various animal models of inflammation, including collagen-induced arthritis, and is implicated in representing a novel therapy for rheumatoid arthritis. However, evidence of anti-inflammatory effects of VNS in humans is very scarce. Transvenous VNS (tVNS) is a newly developed and less invasive method to stimulate the vagus nerve. In the present study, we determined whether tVNS is a feasible and safe procedure and investigated its putative anti-inflammatory effects during experimental human endotoxemia.

Methods

We performed a randomized double-blind sham-controlled study in healthy male volunteers. A stimulation catheter was inserted in the left internal jugular vein at spinal level C5-

SUBMITTER: Kox M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4480894 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature