Association between apoptosis and mortality in severe septic patients

The apoptotic process, in which cells are actively eliminated by a programmed pathway, is increased in sepsis. Extrinsic and intrinsic apoptotic death cell pathways activate caspase-3, which leads to cell apoptosis. Cytokeratin 18 (CK-18), a protein present in most epithelial and parenchymal cells, is cleaved by the action of caspases and released into the blood as caspase-cleaved CK (CCCK)-18 during apoptotic death. The novel objectives of this study were to determine whether there are associations between serum caspase-3 levels, serum CK-18 levels and mortality in septic patients.