IL6 and Sepsis: However, to be in accordance with the 3 R tenet of the ARRIVE guidelines we have decided against a control group- Furthermore, as stated above, the animals showed clear signs of infection: visible peritonitis, SRSS, mortality rate (mild septic animals: 13%, moderate septic animals 20%), significantly higher IL-6 levels(and leucocyte counts compared to sham (as shown in previous studies with the same sepsis model [9,24].