FIGURE 1.

Twenty-eight day mortality after CLP-induced sepsis. CLP was performed (n = 83) with an 18-gauge needle to produce ~50% mortality. Mortality was monitored for 28 days and the deaths were separated into two groups: early (days 1–5) or late (days 6–28). Plasma was sampled only in the chronic phase of sepsis from animals that appeared moribund based on weight loss, activity, and temperature. Every sampling of a moribund animal was simultaneously accompanied by the sampling of two healthy-appearing mice at the same post-CLP day for reference values. There was a total of 20 deaths recorded between days 6–28 (20 of 42) and 14 of these animals were sampled together with matching reference animals (healthy-appearing post-CLP mice) producing 14 triplets (two healthy and one moribund). Dotted lines indicate the days on which sampled mice died. All 14 samples from the moribund mice were obtained within 24 h of death.