Project description:Objective: It is unclear whether the host response of gram-positive sepsis differs from gram-negative sepsis at a transcriptome level. Using microarray technology, we compared the gene-expression profiles of gram-positive sepsis and gram-negative sepsis in critically ill patients. Design: A prospective cross-sectional study. Setting: A 20-bed general intensive care unit of a tertiary referral hospital. Patients: Seventy-two patients admitted to the intensive care unit. Interventions: Intravenous blood was collected for leukocyte separation and RNA extraction. Microarray experiements were then performed examing the expression level of 19,232 genes in each sample. Measurements and Main Results: There was no difference in the expression profile between gram-positive and gram-negative sepsis. The finding remained unchanged even when genes with lower expression level were included or after statistical stringency was lowered. There were, however, ninety-four genes differentially expressed between sepsis and control patients. These genes included those involved in immune regulation, inflammation and mitochondrial function. Hierarchical cluster analysis confirmed that the difference in gene expression profile existed between sepsis and control patients, but not between gram-positive and gram-negative patients. Conclusion: Gram-positive and gram-negative sepsis share a common host response at a transcriptome level. These findings support the hypothesis that the septic response is non-specific and is designed to provide a more general response that can be elicited by a wide range of different micro-organisms. Keywords: disease state analysis, gram-positive sepsis, gram-negative sepsis
Project description:We profiled the expression of circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) in mice exposed to gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria using Illumina small RNA deep sequencing. Recombinant-specific gram-negative pathogen Escherichia coli (Xen14) and gram-positive pathogen Staphylococcus aureus (Xen29) were used to induce bacterial infection in mice at a concentration of 1 × 108 bacteria/100 μL of phosphate buffered saline (PBS). Small RNA libraries generated from the serum of mice after exposure to PBS, Xen14, Xen29, and Xen14+Xen29 via the routes of subcutaneous injection (I), cut wound (C), or under grafted skin (S) were analyzed using an Illumina HiSeq2000 Sequencer. Following exposure to gram-negative bacteria alone, no differentially expressed miRNA was found in the injection, cut, or skin graft models. Exposure to mixed bacteria induced a similar expression pattern of the circulating miRNAs to that induced by gram-positive bacterial infection. Upon gram-positive bacterial infection, 9 miRNAs (mir-193b-3p, mir-133a-1-3p, mir-133a-2-3p, mir-133a-1-5p, mir-133b-3p, mir-434-3p, mir-127-3p, mir-676-3p, mir-215-5p) showed upregulation greater than 4-fold with a p-value < 0.01. Among them, mir-193b-3p, mir-133a-1-3p, and mir-133a-2-3p presented the most common miRNA targets expressed in the mice exposed to gram-positive bacterial infection.