Dissociation between plasma and monocyte‐associated cytokines during sepsis

Abstract

We report our investigations of circulating interleukin (IL) 1β, IL 6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)‐α, as well as cell‐associated IL 1α, IL 1β and TNF‐α in plasma and monocytes of 21 patients with sepsis syndrome and 6 patients with non‐septic shock. Longitudinal studies reveal that (a) the most frequent detectable plasma cytokines were TNF‐α and IL 6, (b) the presence and the kinetics of circulating cytokines were independent of one other, (c) detectable levels of cytokines could be found for a long period of time, and (d) significantly higher levels of IL 6 were found for non‐surviving patients. Because of the in vivo half‐life of cytokines and of the existence of numerous specific high‐affinity receptors, it is quite probable that detectable plasma cytokines represent the excess of produced mediators which have not been trapped by the target cells. TNF‐α (410 ± 65 pg/106 monocytes) and IL 1β (153 ± 60 pg/106 monocytes) were frequently found associated to monocyte lysates (88% and