Fig. 5.

The systemic inflammatory profile is altered by sepsis. Plasma samples from D14, D28, and W36 from the extremely preterm children were analyzed for the detection of TNF, IL-6, sCD14, sCD163, and antimicrobial peptide LL-37 by ELISA. Box and whisker plots visualized the plasma levels of TNF (a), IL-6 (b), sCD14 (c), sCD163 (d), and LL-37 (e) in infants having or not having sepsis at different postnatal ages. Each point with distinct color depicted the onset day of sepsis for each infant. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for group comparisons.