Grant: Operating Grant

Civilian trauma is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Canada and globally. One of the primary sources of morbidity is the development of organ dysfunction in trauma victims who survive the initial hours following injury. Patients who sustain hemorrhagic shock are at particularly high risk for the development of organ dysfunction, due to the ability of shock/resuscitation to prime immune cells for increased responsiveness to subsequent inflammatory stimuli such as gram negative bacterial lipopolysaccharide, a phenomenon called the 'two-hit hypothesis'.The knowledge generated from this study will provide novel insights into the strategies for prevention and treatment.