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  • Between Bedside and Bench
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The sepsis seesaw: seeking a heart salve

Nature Medicine volume 15, pages 497–498 (2009)Cite this article

Bench to Bedside

Sepsis in humans frequently follows the body's attempt to thwart infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses and fungi. In many respects, the development of sepsis represents the harmful consequences of exuberant innate immune responses, resulting in high levels of proinflammatory mediators that are associated with organ failure, primarily in the heart, lungs, liver and kidneys. The early phases of sepsis are often associated with the onset of immunosuppression, which may compromise the body's ability to cope with infectious agents1.

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Figure 1: Several types of cardiosuppressive factors impair contractility of cardiomyocytes: C5a, which interacts with C5aR; LPS, which engages TLR4; and cytokines (IL-1β, TNF-α and IL-6), which interact via G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs).

Kim Caesar

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  1. Peter A. Ward is in the Department of Pathology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. pward@med.umich.edu,

    Peter A Ward

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  1. Peter A Ward
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Ward, P. The sepsis seesaw: seeking a heart salve. Nat Med 15, 497–498 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0509-497

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