Fig 1. Immunosuppression in sepsis is associated with immune cell dysfunction.

(A)Proportion of patients infected with each pathogen. Patients with polymicrobial infections are counted in each relevant category. The denominator is the total number of patients with secondary infections (n=69).(B) Proportion of infected patients by site; Patients with multiple sites of secondary infection were counted in each relevant category. The denominator is the total number of patients with secondary infection (n = 69).(C) Mortality rates of sepsis patients with primary (N=417) and secondary infections (N=69).(D) Comparison of monocyte counts in sepsis patients with primary and secondary infections.(E) mRNA expression levels of IL-6 and IL-1β measured by RT-PCR in PBMCs isolated from healthy individuals (N=14) and sepsis survivors (N=9), with or without LPS stimulation for 4 hours; Fig 1E: Citation to Use: Created in BioRender. An, Q. (2026) https://BioRender.com/swt26rj.(F) Human leukemic monocytes (THP-1 cells) were differentiated into macrophages by stimulation with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA), followed by LPS stimulation for 3, 6, 12, and 24 hours, and IL-6 and IL-1β mRNA expression levels were measured by RT-PCR.(G) Peritoneal macrophages (PMs) were isolated from wild-type (WT) C57BL/6 mice, followed by LPS stimulation for 6, 12, and 24 hours, and IL-6 and IL-1β mRNA expression levels were measured by RT-PCR.(H) A cell model of secondary infection induced by LPS in sepsis; Fig 1H: Citation to Use: Created in BioRender. An, Q. (2026) https://BioRender.com/tfpzsz9.(I, J) Stimulation methods of the LPS-induced secondary infection cell model applied to THP-1 and PM cells, with IL-6 and IL-1β mRNA expression levels measured by RT-PCR.(K) PM cells treated with stimulation methods from the LPS-induced secondary infection cell model, followed by transcriptomic sequencing to generate a heatmap of inflammatory gene expression.All experiments were repeated at least 3 times with similar results. The data are expressed as means ± SDs. Statistical analyses were performed using two-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparisons test (E), and one-way ANOVA for panels (F, G, I, J, K). Data were considered statistically significant when ∗p ≤ 0.05, ∗∗p ≤ 0.01, and ∗∗∗p ≤ 0.001.