A Gut Microbe Increases Risk and Severity of Sepsis (opens in new tab)

Sepsis is a state of runaway inflammation resulting from infection, in which inflammatory signaling becomes so intense that organs fail under the stress. Crudely, one might think of initiation of sepsis as a tipping point between the normal balance of initiation and suppression of inflammation versus a runaway positive feedback loop of inflammatory signaling. Here, researchers show that the composition of the gut microbiome contributes to the risk of sepsis, and one microbial species in parti...