Enhanced HLA-DR expression on T-lymphocytes from patients in early stages of non-surgical sepsis

Early detection of sepsis is a critical step to improve patient's survival and cellular markers effective diagnosis tools. The aim of this work was to evaluate HLA-DR expression on peripheral T-lymphocytes (CD3⁺), a marker associate to T-cell activation, as an early sepsis detection tool.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in twenty-six patients with confirmed sepsis by blood culture, eighteen healthy individuals and four patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome. The analysis of the HLA-DR expression was carried by flow cytometry.

The patients with confirmed sepsis had significantly higher percentage of CD3⁺/HLA-DR⁺ lymphocytes compared with both, patients with SIRS (20.37±9.42 vs. 8.7±2.9; p<0.005) and healthy individuals (20.37±9.42 vs. 6.58±3.89; p<0.005). Moreover, the average amount of HLA-DR expressed was higher when caused by gram-positive than by gram-negative bacterias (216.61±131.35 vs. 135.05±31.82; p=0.041). A ROC curve analysis showed the utility of HLA-DR expression on T-cells to identify patients with sepsis.

Our results suggest that surface expression of HLA-DR on T-lymphocytes could be an early marker for the presence of sepsis in non-surgical septic patients.