{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,30]],"date-time":"2026-04-30T23:19:54Z","timestamp":1777591194952,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,27]],"date-time":"2026-01-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1769472000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Immunol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The pathogenic role of inflammatory cytokine levels in children with septic shock has not been completely clarified. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between the early concentrations of inflammatory cytokines, pathogen classification, and 28-day mortality in children with septic shock.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Method<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>We retrospectively analyzed the early expression of cytokines in children admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of a tertiary pediatric hospital due to septic shock between July 2019 and September 2024.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>A total of 189 children with septic shock were included and 68 died within 28 days of hospitalization. The plasma levels of IL-6 (P\u00a0=\u00a00.001), IL-10 (P &amp;lt; 0.001), IFN-\u03b3 (P\u00a0=\u00a00.002), and TNF-\u03b1 (P\u00a0=\u00a00.014) were significantly higher in the nonsurvivor group than in the survivor group. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that the IL-6 level was an independent risk factor for 28-day mortality after controlling platelet count and lactate, lactate dehydrogenase, Hb, IFN-\u03b3, and TNF-\u03b1 levels. ROC analysis revealed the AUC values of the IL-6, IL-10, IFN-\u03b3, and TNF-\u03b1 levels were 0.64, 0.68, 0.64 and 0.61, respectively, and that the optimal cutoff values were 414.92 pg\/ml, 29.66 pg\/ml, 1.605 pg\/ml and 0.725 pg\/ml, respectively. According to these cutoff values, the survival curves of the groups with high levels of IL-6, IL-10, IFN-\u03b3, and TNF-\u03b1 differed significantly from those with low levels (p &amp;lt; 0.001, p &amp;lt; 0.001, p = 0.001, and p = 0.001, respectively). In children with positive fluid cultures, there was no statistically significant difference in cytokines levels between the gram-positive bacterial (G+) and gram-negative bacterial (G-) infection groups. However, in children with positive blood cultures, the levels of IL-6 (p = 0.005) and IL-10 (p = 0.003) were significantly higher in the G- group than in the G+ group.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Elevated IL-6 and IL-10 levels are valuable for predicting 28-day mortality and identifying gram-negative bacteremia in pediatric patients with septic shock. IFN-\u03b3 and TNF-\u03b1 levels also have significant value for predicting 28-day mortality. Moreover, the IL-6 level was an independent risk factor for 28-day mortality.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fimmu.2026.1714948","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,27]],"date-time":"2026-01-27T06:42:31Z","timestamp":1769496151000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Role of cytokine levels in pathogen classification and prognosis of pediatric septic shock"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Guangyan","family":"Du","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Critical Care Medicine, Children\u2019s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University","place":["Chongqing, China"]},{"name":"Children\u2019s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders","place":["Chongqing, 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of Pediatric Pulmonology, Sichuan University West China Second University Hospital","place":["Chengdu, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Chengjun","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Critical Care Medicine, Children\u2019s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University","place":["Chongqing, China"]},{"name":"Children\u2019s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders","place":["Chongqing, China"]},{"name":"Children\u2019s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Child Rare Diseases in Infection and Immunity","place":["Chongqing, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yueqiang","family":"Fu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Critical Care Medicine, Children\u2019s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University","place":["Chongqing, China"]},{"name":"Children\u2019s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders","place":["Chongqing, China"]},{"name":"Children\u2019s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Child Rare Diseases in Infection and Immunity","place":["Chongqing, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(19)32989-7","article-title":"Global, regional, and national sepsis incidence and mortality, 1990-2017: analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study","volume":"395","author":"Rudd","year":"2020","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1001\/jama.2024.0179","article-title":"International consensus criteria for 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