FITC-LPS binding to monocytes of healthy volunteers in the presence of different concentrations of severe sepsis sera and sera of healthy controls.

Binding of FITC-LPS to monocytes was assessed employing a FACS-based method as described in “Patients, materials, and methods.” Five independent experiments with sera of 5 healthy controls (●; LBP serum concentration, 7.98 ± 1.03 μg/mL) and of 5 randomly chosen severe sepsis patients (▴; LBP serum concentration, 107 ± 32 μg/mL) were performed. Different volumes of serum were added as indicated. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. Differences were analyzed by the Mann-Whitney U test; *P < .05.