Severe sepsis from bacterial or viral infections can be life-threatening and even people recovering from severe sepsis may experience long-lasting effects on the immune system, making them more susceptible to recurrent infections. The causes for this sepsis-induced immune suppression are not well understood and lack an effective treatment.
To better understand the cause, the researchers analyzed the blood stem cells of mice with prior sepsis and their results were recently published in the journal Stem Cell Reports.
During acute infection, blood stem cells in the bone marrow are activated by signaling molecules called inflammatory cytokines, which make them divide and migrate to the blood stream to generate large quantities of immune cells outside the bone marrow. Once infection is eliminated, cytokine levels return to baseline and blood stem cell activation and immune cell production stops.
To understand how this process gets dysregulated after severe sepsis resolves, the researchers analyzed the blood stem cells of mice and found them to be fully recovered and functional in the bone marrow of mice 20 days after sepsis. However, upon a second round of inflammatory stimulation, using the stem cell mobilizing agent G-CSF, the blood stem cells of sepsis survivors did not undergo a new round of activation and mobilization as did those in mice without prior sepsis.
Consequently, immune cells were not efficiently produced in those mice with prior sepsis. These observations could explain why following sepsis, patients are unable to efficiently combat new infections and why giving inflammatory cytokines and G-CSF specifically to sepsis patients had no effect against secondary infections in previous clinical trials.
This knowledge may help to identify new treatments for patients with post-sepsis immune suppression.
https://www.cell.com/stem-cell-reports/fulltext/S2213-6711(24)00082-1
Latest News
A new gene-editing system
By newseditor
Posted 23 May
How ketamine's molecular ac…
By newseditor
Posted 23 May
Therapeutic avenues in bone…
By newseditor
Posted 23 May
Linking key nutrients with…
By newseditor
Posted 23 May
Ferroptosis in fatal COVID-…
By newseditor
Posted 22 May
Other Top Stories
Plasma treatment for strong adhesion without adhesives
Read more
"Scavenger" Molecule Prevents Nerve Agent Poisoning in Animals
Read more
Social interactions reduce feeding behavior!
Read more
Mosquitoes can hear up to 10 meters away
Read more
Brain's response to texture
Read more
Protocols
Efficient expansion and CRI…
By newseditor
Posted 21 May
Massively parallel in vivo…
By newseditor
Posted 20 May
Breast cancer-on-chip for p…
By newseditor
Posted 16 May
Methods for making and obse…
By newseditor
Posted 15 May
Mime-seq 2.0: a method to s…
By newseditor
Posted 13 May
Publications
Patterning and folding of i…
By newseditor
Posted 23 May
Peri-ictal activation of do…
By newseditor
Posted 23 May
Ancestry, ethnicity, and ra…
By newseditor
Posted 23 May
Ketamine can produce oscill…
By newseditor
Posted 23 May
Upregulation of neuronal ER…
By newseditor
Posted 23 May
Presentations
Hydrogels in Drug Delivery
By newseditor
Posted 12 Apr
Lipids
By newseditor
Posted 31 Dec
Cell biology of carbohydrat…
By newseditor
Posted 29 Nov
RNA interference (RNAi)
By newseditor
Posted 23 Oct
RNA structure and functions
By newseditor
Posted 19 Oct
Posters
A chemical biology/modular…
By newseditor
Posted 22 Aug
Single-molecule covalent ma…
By newseditor
Posted 04 Jul
ASCO-2020-HEALTH SERVICES R…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
ASCO-2020-HEAD AND NECK CANCER
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
ASCO-2020-GENITOURINARY CAN…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar