Sepsis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Sepsis, including details on septicemia, diagnosis, symptoms, treatment.

Identification of a detrimental role for NK cells in pneumococcal pneumonia and sepsis in immunocompromised hosts.

Kerr AR, Kirkham LA, Kadioglu A, Andrew PW, Garside P, Thompson H, Mitchell TJ

Division of Infection and Immunity, IBLS, Joseph Black Building, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK.

Gram-positive sepsis is a major disease problem. However, the contribution of various immune cell types to pathogenesis remains unclear. By infecting scid and wild type BALB/c mice with Streptococcus pneumoniae we have found a situation in which natural killer (NK) cells can play a detrimental role in the response to infection. scid mice were found to be significantly more susceptible to local and systemic pneumococcal infection than controls; they had significantly higher bacterial loads, elevated inflammatory responses and more widespread lung pathology. Interestingly, depletion of NK cells in scid mice resulted in significantly lower bacteraemia and inflammatory cytokine production. Infection with pneumococci deficient in pneumolysin revealed the toxin was involved in cytokine production. Overall results indicate that elevated NK cell activity during pneumococcal pneumonia amplifies pulmonary and systemic inflammation, increases bacteraemia and results in poor outcome.

Published 20 June 2005 in Microbes Infect, 7(5): 845-52.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Sepsis Research Today. All Rights Reserved.