FIG. 4.

CD40L fails to increase cell proliferation in anti-CD3-stimulated PBMC from septic patients. PBMC from septic patients (n = 13) were obtained at day 7. The proliferative response was assessed by pulsing the cultures with [³H]thymidine for the last 18 h of culture. No statistically significant differences were found between results for patients and controls in unstimulated samples, cells stimulated by anti-CD3 alone, cells stimulated by anti-CD3 and anti-CD28, or cells stimulated by anti-CD3 and GM-CSF. An asterisk indicates that the amount of [³H]thymidine uptake was significantly lower (P < 0.05) for patients than for controls in cells stimulated by anti-CD3 and CD40L. The data represent the means ± standard deviations (error bars).