Sepsis survival and severity in wild type and granzyme B null mice in a rapidly fatal (severe) CLP model.

A. Granzyme B null (−/−) mice had lower sepsis scores than wild type mice at every time point. For example, at 22 hours, the mean±SEM wild type score was 9.0±0.8 while the granzyme B null score was 6.8±0.7 (*p = 0.04) B. Kaplan-Meier survival curve for wild type and granzyme B null (−/−) mice in hours after CLP. Granzyme B null (−/−) mice survived longer following severe CLP than wild type mice (p = 0.0019 by Cox Proportional Hazard Regression). C. Endotoxin concentrations (EU/mL) were measured in granzyme B null and wild type mouse plasma. Differences between the two mouse strains were not statistically significant. D. Representative photomicrographs of lung and spleen in sepsis are shown. Platelet infiltration, assayed by CD41 (brown) staining, was visibly widespread and similar between wild type and granzyme B null mice in both organs. Photomicrographs were taken at 10X magnification.