We evaluated the role of single nucleotide polymorphisms for five genes: bactericidal permeability increasing protein (BPI; rs5743507), lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP; rs2232618), toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4; rs4986790), heat shock protein 70 (HSP 70; rs2227956), and interleukin 6 (IL-6; rs1800795) in 598 children aged 0 to 19 years that were admitted to a paediatric intensive care unit with fever, systemic inflammatory response syndrome, sepsis, severe sepsis, septic shock, or multiple organ dysfunction syndrome.
Combined with our previous in vitro functional study, the results suggest that the TLR4 11367 polymorphism might be a good predictor of who is more likely to develop complications such as sepsis or multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, depending on genotype.