Figure 1

Activity of pSMPDl during the course of inflammatory response. (A) Activity was determined by densitometric quantification of generated ceramide from a fluorescent dye-labeled sphingomyelin substrate in serum from patients with various degrees of inflammatory response with postoperative SIRS after cardiac surgery without organ dysfunction (SIRS without OD), with SIRS with organ dysfunction (SIRS with OD) and severe sepsis/septic shock (severe sepsis/septic shock). Boxes indicate interquartile range, divided by the median (central horizontal line). The median of an age-matched healthy control cohort is indicated by a dotted horizontal line. Levels of significance between patients groups are indicated by asterisks (*** P ≤ 0.001; Kruskal-Wallis-test) and between the patients groups with OD versus SIRS without OD by a rhombus (### P ≤ 0.001; MWU-test). (B) Plasma appearance of SMPD1 determined by immuno-precipitation and immunological visualization. Results shown are representative of those obtained in three independent experiments.