Trends in immunology
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Trends in immunology · Jan 2014
ReviewLipid mediators in immune dysfunction after severe inflammation.
Sepsis, trauma, burns, and major surgical procedures activate common systemic inflammatory pathways. Nosocomial infection, organ failure, and mortality in this patient population are associated with a quantitatively different reprioritization of the circulating leukocyte transcriptome to the initial inflammatory insult, greater in both magnitude and duration, and secondary to multiple observed defects in innate and adaptive immune function. ⋯ Recent data indicate the potential efficacy of therapeutic interventions that either reduce immunosuppressive prostaglandins (PGs) or increase specialized proresolving LMs. Here, we reassess the potential for pharmacological manipulation of these LMs as therapeutic approaches for the treatment of critical illness (CI).