Thrombocytopenia enhances proinflammatory cytokine release during Klebsiella sepsis. Very low-PC, low-PC, and control mice were infected with K pneumoniae via the airways and euthanized at 12 or 44 hours. TNF-α (A) and IL-6 (B) were measured in plasma. Heparinized whole blood obtained from naive very low-PC and control mice was diluted in IMDM (1:1) and incubated with Klebsiella or IMDM control for 6 hours. TNF-α (C) and IL-6 (D) were measured in plasma supernatant. Data are expressed as box-and-whisker plots depicting the smallest observation, lower quartile, median, upper quartile, and largest observation, n = 8 (infected) and n = 6 (naive) mice per group. *P < .05 vs control; #P < .05 vs low-PC.