Cause of sepsis-induced lung injury

A KAIST research team succeeded in visualizing pulmonary microcirculation and circulating cells in vivo with a custom-built 3D intravital lung microscopic imaging system. They found a type of leukocyte called neutrophils aggregate inside the capillaries during sepsis-induced acute lung injury (ALI), leading to disturbances and dead space in blood microcirculation. According to the researchers, this phenomenon is responsible for tissue hypoxia causing lung damage in the sepsis model, and mitigating neutrophils improves microcirculation as well as hypoxia.