Chronic Critical Illness from Sepsis Is Associated with an Enhanced TCR Response

Sepsis is characterized by a disproportionate host response to infection that often culminates in multiple organ failure. Current concepts invoke a deregulated immune reaction involving features of hyperinflammation, as well as protracted immune suppression. However, owing to the scarcity of human data, the precise origin of a long-term suppression of adaptive immunity remains doubtful. We report on an explorative clinical study of chronic critical illness (CCI) patients aimed at assessing the long-term consequences of sepsis on T cell function. Blood was drawn from 12 male CCI patients (median age 67 y, range 48–79 y) receiving continuous mechanical ventilation and renal replacement therapy in a long-term care hospital who had been treated in an external acute care hospital for severe sepsis. T cells were purified and subjected to flow cytometric immune-phenotyping and functional assays. We found that T cells from CCI patients featured higher basal levels of activation and stronger expression of the inhibitory surface receptor programmed cell death 1 compared with controls. However, T cells from CCI patients exhibited no suppressed TCR response at the level of proximal TCR signaling (activation/phosphorylation of PLCγ, Erk, Akt, LAT), activation marker upregulation (CD69, CD25, CD154, NUR77), IL-2 production, or clonal expansion. Rather, our data illustrate an augmented response in T cells from CCI patients in response to TCR/coreceptor (CD3/CD28) challenge. Thus, the present findings reveal that CCI sepsis patients feature signs of immune suppression but that their T cells exhibit a primed, rather than a suppressed, phenotype in their TCR response, arguing against a generalized T cell paralysis as a major cause of protracted immune suppression from sepsis.