Human Myeloid-derived Suppressor Cells are Associated With Chronic Immune Suppression After Severe Sepsis/Septic Shock.

OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that after sepsis in humans, MDSCs will be persistently increased, functionally immunosuppressive, and associated with adverse clinical outcomes. BACKGROUND: Cancer and sepsis have surprisingly similar immunologic responses and equally dismal long term consequences. In cancer, increased myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) induce detrimental immunosuppression, but little is known about the role of MDSCs after sepsis. METHODS: Blood was obtained from 74 patients within 12 hours of severe sepsis/septic shock (SS/SS), and at set intervals out to 28 days, and also in 18 healthy controls. MDSCs were phenotyped for cell surface receptor expression and enriched by cell sorting. Functional and genome-wide expression analyses were performed. Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine if increased MDSC appearance was associated with in-hospital and long-term outcomes. RESULTS: After SS/SS, CD33CD11bHLA-DR MDSCs were dramatically increased out to 28 days (P < 0.05). When co-cultured with MDSCs from SS/SS patients, antigen-driven T-cell proliferation and TH1/TH2 cytokine production were suppressed (P < 0.05). Additionally, septic MDSCs had suppressed HLA gene expression and up-regulated ARG1 expression (P < 0.05). Finally, SS/SS patients with persistent increased percentages of blood MDSCs had increased nosocomial infections, prolonged intensive care unit stays, and poor functional status at discharge (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: After SS/SS in humans, circulating MDSCs are persistently increased, functionally immunosuppressive, and associated with adverse outcomes. This novel observation warrants further studies. As observed in cancer immunotherapy, MDSCs could be a novel component in multimodality immunotherapy targeting detrimental inflammation and immunosuppression after SS/SS to improve currently observed dismal long-term outcomes.

Patterns of gene expression among murine models of hemorrhagic shock/trauma and sepsis.

Controversy remains whether the leukocyte genomic response to trauma or sepsis is dependent upon the initiating stimulus. Previous work illustrated poor correlations between historical models of murine trauma and sepsis (i.e., trauma-hemorrhage and lipopolysaccharide injection, respectively). The aim of this study is to examine the early genomic response in improved murine models of sepsis [cecal ligation and puncture (CLP)] and trauma [polytrauma (PT)] with and without pneumonia (PT+Pp). Groups of naïve, CLP, PT, and PT+Pp mice were killed at 2 h, 1 or 3 days. Total leukocytes were isolated for genome-wide expression analysis, and genes that were found to differ from control (false discovery rate adjusted P < 0.001) were assessed for fold-change differences. Spearman correlations were also performed. For all time points combined (CLP, PT, PT+Pp), there were 10,426 total genes that were found to significantly differ from naïve controls. At 2 h, the transcriptomic changes between CLP and PT showed a positive correlation (rs) of 0.446 (P < 0.0001) but were less positive thereafter. Correlations were significantly improved when we limited the analysis to common genes whose expression differed by a 1.5 fold-change. Both pathway and upstream analyses revealed the activation of genes known to be associated with pathogen-associated and damage-associated molecular pattern signaling, and early activation patterns of expression were very similar between polytrauma and sepsis at the earliest time points. This study demonstrates that the early leukocyte genomic response to sepsis and trauma are very similar in mice.

A Review of GM-CSF Therapy in Sepsis.

Determine what clinical role, if any, GM-CSF may have in the clinical treatment of sepsis in the adult patient. Advancements in the management of sepsis have led to significant decreases in early mortality; however, sepsis remains a significant source of long-term mortality and disability which places strain on healthcare resources with a substantial growing economic impact. Historically, early multiple organ failure (MOF) and death in patients with severe sepsis was thought to result from an exaggerated proinflammatory response called the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS). Numerous prospective randomized controlled trials (PRCTs) tested therapies aimed at decreasing the organ injury associated with an exaggerated inflammatory response. With few exceptions, the results from these PRCTs have been disappointing, and currently no specific therapeutic agent is approved to counteract the early SIRS response in patients with severe sepsis. It has long been recognized that there is a delayed immunosuppressive state that contributes to long-term morbidity. However, recent findings now support a concurrent proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory response present throughout sepsis. Multiple immunomodulating agents have been studied to combat the immunosuppressive phase of sepsis with the goal of decreasing secondary infection, reducing organ dysfunction, decreasing ICU stays, and improving survival. Granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), a myelopoietic growth factor currently used in patients with neutropenia secondary to chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression, has been studied as a potential immune-activating agent. The applicability of GM-CSF as a standard therapy for generalized sepsis is still largely understudied; however, small-scale studies available have demonstrated some improved recovery from infection, decreased hospital length of stay, decreased days requiring mechanical ventilation, and decreased medical costs.

Successful implementation of a packed red blood cell and fresh frozen plasma transfusion protocol in the surgical intensive care unit.

BACKGROUND: Blood product transfusions are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this study was to determine if implementation of a restrictive protocol for packed red blood cell (PRBC) and fresh frozen plasma (FFP) transfusion safely reduces blood product utilization and costs in a surgical intensive care unit (SICU). STUDY DESIGN: We performed a retrospective, historical control analysis comparing before (PRE) and after (POST) implementation of a restrictive PRBC/FFP transfusion protocol for SICU patients. Univariate analysis was utilized to compare patient demographics and blood product transfusion totals between the PRE and POST cohorts. Multivariate logistic regression models were developed to determine if implementation of the restrictive transfusion protocol is an independent predictor of adverse outcomes after controlling for age, illness severity, and total blood products received. RESULTS: 829 total patients were included in the analysis (PRE, n=372; POST, n=457). Despite higher mean age (56 vs. 52 years, p=0.01) and APACHE II scores (12.5 vs. 11.2, p=0.006), mean units transfused per patient were lower for both packed red blood cells (0.7 vs. 1.2, p=0.03) and fresh frozen plasma (0.3 vs. 1.2, p=0.007) in the POST compared to the PRE cohort, respectively. There was no difference in inpatient mortality between the PRE and POST cohorts (7.5% vs. 9.2%, p=0.39). There was a decreased risk of urinary tract infections (OR 0.47, 95%CI 0.28-0.80) in the POST cohort after controlling for age, illness severity and amount of blood products transfused. CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of a restrictive transfusion protocol can effectively reduce blood product utilization in critically ill surgical patients with no increase in morbidity or mortality.

Advanced age is associated with worsened outcomes and a unique genomic response in severely injured patients with hemorrhagic shock.

INTRODUCTION: We wished to characterize the relationship of advanced age to clinical outcomes and to transcriptomic responses after severe blunt traumatic injury with hemorrhagic shock. METHODS: We performed epidemiological, cytokine, and transcriptomic analyses on a prospective, multi-center cohort of 1,928 severely injured patients. RESULTS: We found that there was no difference in injury severity between the aged (age ≥55, n = 533) and young (age <55, n = 1395) cohorts. However, aged patients had more comorbidities. Advanced age was associated with more severe organ failure, infectious complications, ventilator days, and intensive care unit length of stay, as well as, an increased likelihood of being discharged to skilled nursing or long-term care facilities. Additionally, advanced age was an independent predictor of a complicated recovery and 28-day mortality. Acutely after trauma, blood neutrophil genome-wide expression analysis revealed an attenuated transcriptomic response as compared to the young; this attenuated response was supported by the patients' plasma cytokine and chemokine concentrations. Later, these patients demonstrated gene expression changes consistent with simultaneous, persistent pro-inflammatory and immunosuppressive states. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that advanced age is one of the strongest non-injury related risk factors for poor outcomes after severe trauma with hemorrhagic shock and is associated with an altered and unique peripheral leukocyte genomic response. As the general population's age increases, it will be important to individualize prediction models and therapeutic targets to this high risk cohort.

Host responses to sepsis vary in different low-lethality murine models.

INTRODUCTION: Animal models for the study of sepsis are being increasingly scrutinized, despite their essential role for early translational research. In particular, recent studies have suggested that at the level of the leukocyte transcriptome, murine models of burns, trauma and endotoxemia markedly differ from their human equivalents, and are only weakly similar amongst themselves. We compared the plasma cytokine and leukocyte transcriptome responses between two different low-lethality murine models of polymicrobial intra-abdominal sepsis. METHODS: Six to ten week male C57BL/6j mice underwent either the 'gold standard' cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) model of intra-abdominal sepsis or administration of a cecal slurry (CS), where cecal contents are injected intraperitoneally. Surviving mice were euthanized at two hours, one or three days after sepsis. RESULTS: The murine leukocyte transcriptomic response to the CLP and CS models of sepsis was surprisingly dissimilar at two hours, one, and three days after sepsis. The Pearson correlation coefficient for the maximum change in expression for the entire leukocyte transcriptome that changed significantly over time (n = 19,071) was R = 0.54 (R2 = 0.297). The CS model resulted in greater magnitude of early inflammatory gene expression changes in response to sepsis with associated increased production of inflammatory chemokines and cytokines. Two hours after sepsis, CLP had more significant expression of genes associated with IL-10 signaling pathways, whereas CS had greater expression of genes related to CD28, apoptosis, IL-1 and T-cell receptor signaling. By three days, the changes in gene expression in both sepsis models were returning to baseline in surviving animals. CONCLUSION: These analyses reveal that the murine blood leukocyte response to sepsis is highly dependent on which model of intra-abdominal sepsis is employed, despite their similar lethality. It may be difficult to extrapolate findings from one murine model to another, let alone to human sepsis.