Commentary

The role of natural killer cells in the pathogenesis of sepsis: the ongoing enigma

Julia Bohannon, Yin Guo and Edward R Sherwood*

Author Affiliations

Department of Anesthesiology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Basic Research Division, MCN T-4202, 1161 Medical Center Drive, Nashville, TN 37232, USA

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Critical Care 2012, 16:185 doi:10.1186/cc11881


See related research by Souza-Fonseca-Guimaraes et al.

Published: 11 December 2012

Abstract

The study by Souza-Fonseca-Guimaraes and colleagues in the previous issue of Critical Care shows several alterations in blood natural killer (NK) characteristics during human sepsis and systemic inflammatory response syndrome, including changes in NK cell numbers, Toll-like receptor (TLR) expression, and responsiveness to TLR agonists. This paper advances our knowledge of NK cell biology during sepsis and provides the background for future investigations.