Characterising Cytokine Gene Expression Signatures in Patients with Severe Sepsis

Table 3

Cytokine mRNA levels in patients with severe sepsis and controls. Values denote copy numbers expressed as log₁₀ per 10⁷ copy numbers β-actin. Values are expressed as medians and interquartile ranges. Analysis by Wilcoxon rank sum test between healthy controls, patients with mild sepsis and severe sepsis day 1.

Cytokine	Control	Control versus infection	Infection	Infection versus sepsis at ICU admission	Severe sepsis ICU admission
INFγ	3	ns	2.8	𝑃<0.0001	2.3
	2.7–3.3		2.6–3.2		1.8–2.6
	𝑛=20		𝑛=51		𝑛=53
TNF𝛼	4.5	𝑃=0.04	4.9	𝑃=0.0008	4.5
	4.3–4.9		4.5–5.5		4.3–5
	𝑛=20		𝑛=48		𝑛=50
IL2	2.8	𝑃=0.0002	2.3	𝑃=0.002	2
	2.5–3.1		2.2–2.6		1.6–2.2
	𝑛=20		𝑛=50		𝑛=32
IL7	3.8	ns	3.7	𝑃=0.0004	3.4
	3.7–4.1		3.5–4		3.2–3.7
	𝑛=19		𝑛=52		𝑛=40
IL10	2.6	𝑃<0.0001	2.9	𝑃=0.003	3.2
	2.4–2.7		2.8–3.2		2.9–3.5
	𝑛=19		𝑛=52		𝑛=52
IL23	5.1	𝑃=0.0008	4.8	𝑃<0.0001	4.5
	5.0–5.4		4.6–5.1		4.3–4.8
	𝑛=20		𝑛=53		𝑛=51
IL27	2.5	𝑃<0.0001	3	ns	3.1
	2.3–2.7		2.8–3.3		2.7–3.4
	𝑛=19		𝑛=52		𝑛=50