This book brings together basic scientists or clinicians from a variety of different backgrounds - immunology, infectious diseases or critical care - who share a common interest in understanding the changes that occur in immune responses in sepsis. It provides an up-to-date and unrivalled synthesis of current research in this rapidly developing field.

From the contents: The Four Ds of the Danger Model: Distress, Damage, Destruction, and Death

The Immune Response in Critical Illness: Excessive, Inadequate or Dysregulated
Genomics of the Sepsis Syndrome
The Pro-inflammatory Cytokine Cascade
Inhibitory Cytokines
Bacterial Toxines Induce Specific Cytokine Patterns in vivo and in vitro
The Acute Phase Response and Enhancing Resistance to Bacterial Infection
Cytokines as Mediators of Lung Innate Immunity
Fetuin Opsonizes Macrophage-Deactivating Cations
LPS Receptors
Regulation of Cellular Responses to Bacterial Endotoxin
The Role of Nitric Oxide in the Initiation of Inflammation in Shock
Regulation of Neutrophil Activation in Acute Lung Injury and SIRS
Neutrophils and Acute Lung Injury
Lymphocyte Activation, Anergy and Apoptosis in Polymicrobial Sepsis
Programmed Cell Death (Apoptosis) and the Immunologic Derangements of Critical Illness
The Endothelium as an Immune Organ: Active Player and Passive Target.