• Pierre-Marie Roger, Hervé Hyvernat, Michel Ticchioni, Gaurav Kumar, Jean Dellamonica, and Gilles Bernardin.
• Service d'Infectiologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nice, France. roger.pm@chu-nice.fr
• J Crit Care. 2012 Aug 1;27(4):384-93.

PurposeT cell activation as well as unresponsiveness has been described in separate studies in sepsis. Our aim was to establish the coexistence of both T cell fate in human sepsis.Patients And MethodsThis is a cross-sectional study of 48 patients presenting with severe sepsis or septic shock and 15 healthy controls. Cytofluorometric techniques were used to quantify T cell activation, apoptosis, proliferation, expression of costimulatory molecules, and cytokine secretion.ResultsPatients with sepsis were characterized by a significant increase in the percentage of activated T cell subsets, as measured using CD69 marker, compared with healthy controls (P<.05). T cell proliferation as measured through Ki67 expression was obvious in infected patients for both CD4 and CD8 T cell subsets compared with controls (P ≤.006). T cell subset apoptosis as measured using Hoechst dye was also increased in infected patients compared with controls (P ≤.002). CD4 T cell proliferation was correlated with interleukin 2 secretion (R(2)=0.84, P<.001), whereas up-regulation of CD4 T cell apoptosis was correlated with CTLA-4 expression (R(2)=0.24, P=.001). No such similar relationship was observed for CD8(+) T cells.ConclusionsConcomitant T cell proliferation and T cell apoptosis are observed in human sepsis, being related to a different pathway.Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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