Sepsis-induced immunosuppression is a new paradigm in sepsis pathophysiology. This up-to-date review integrates recent facts in the field. It focuses on immune dysfunctions described so far in septic patients (especially regarding T lymphocytes), on the mechanisms sustaining this immune failure, on the monitoring of the pro-/anti-inflammatory balance rapidly changing over time and on new promising therapeutic avenues emerging from those recent findings. Of them, the case of interleukin-7 is more specifically envisaged.
© 2014 médecine/sciences – Inserm.