Association between Changes in Plasma Metabolism and Clinical Outcomes of Sepsis

Current prognostic biomarkers for sepsis have limited sensitivity and specificity. This study aimed to investigate dynamic lipid metabolomics and their association with septic immune response and clinical outcomes of sepsis. This prospective cohort study included patients with sepsis who met the Sepsis 3.0 criteria. On hospitalization days 1 (D1) and 7 (D7), plasma samples were collected, and patients underwent liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. A total of 40 patients were enrolled in the study, 24 (60%) of whom were men. The median age of the enrolled patients was 81 (68-84) years. Thirty-one (77.5%) patients had a primary infection site of the lung. Participants were allocated to the survivor (25 cases) and nonsurvivor (15 cases) groups based on their 28-day survival status. Ultimately, a total of 113 lipids were detected in plasma samples on D 1 and D 7, of which 42 lipids were most abundant in plasma samples. The nonsurvival group had significantly lower lipid expression levels in lysophosphatidylcholine (LysoPC) (16 : 0, 17 : 0,18 : 0) and 18 : 1 SM than those in the survival group (p <  0.05) on D7-D1. The correlation analysis showed that D7-D1 16 : 0 LysoPC (r = 0.367, p = 0.036),17 : 0 LysoPC (r = 0.389, p = 0.025) and 18 : 0 LysoPC(r = 0.472, p = 0.006) levels were positively correlated with the percentage of CD3⁺ T cell in the D7-D1. Plasma LysoPC and SM changes may serve as prognostic biomarkers for sepsis, and lipid metabolism may play a role in septic immune disturbances.