Critical care medicine
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Critical care medicine · Apr 2007
Multicenter StudyCirculating high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) concentrations are elevated in both uncomplicated pneumonia and pneumonia with severe sepsis.
High-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) has been proposed as a late mediator of sepsis, but human data are sparse and conflicting. We describe plasma HMGB1 concentrations in humans with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), the most common cause of severe sepsis, and test the hypotheses that HMGB1 levels are higher in CAP than healthy controls, higher in CAP with severe sepsis than CAP without severe sepsis, and higher in severe sepsis nonsurvivors than survivors. ⋯ HMGB1 is elevated in almost all CAP subjects, and higher circulating HMGB1 is associated with mortality. But immunodetectable HMGB1 levels were also persistently elevated in those patients who fared well. Thus, additional work is needed to understand the biological activities of serum HMGB1 in sepsis.