Sepsis remains a global challenge, especially in low- and middle-income countries, where there is an urgent need for easily accessible and cost-effective biomarkers to predict the occurrence and prognosis of sepsis. Lymphocyte counts are easy to measure clinically, and a large body of animal and clinical research has shown that lymphocyte counts are closely related to the incidence and prognosis of sepsis. This review extensively collected experimental articles related to lymphocyte counts since the unification of the definition of sepsis. The article categorizes and discusses the relationship between absolute lymphocyte counts, intrinsic lymphocyte subsets, effector T-lymphocytes, B-lymphocytes, dendritic cells, and the incidence and prognosis of sepsis. The results indicate that comparisons of absolute lymphocyte counts alone are meaningless. However, in addition to absolute lymphocyte counts, innate lymphocyte subsets, effector T-cells, B-lymphocytes, and dendritic cells have shown certain research value in related studies.
Keywords: B lymphocytes; absolute lymphocyte count; dendritic cells; effector T lymphocytes; innate lymphocyte subgroups; lymphocyte depletion; revive; sepsis.