Supplementary Material for: The Specific Organism: Not Bacterial Gram Type: Drives the Inflammatory Response in Septic Shock

<b><i>Background and Hypothesis:</i></b> The inflammatory response was targeted by unsuccessful therapies but ignored pathogen. We hypothesized that the inflammatory response differs according to organism in human septic shock. <b><i>Materials and Methods:</i></b> We measured 39 cytokines at baseline and 24 h in patients (<i>n</i> = 363) in the Vasopressin and Septic Shock Trial (VASST). We compared cytokine profiles (cytokine functional class) at baseline and at 24 h by organism and used hierarchical clustering to classify cytokines according to 28-day outcomes. <b><i>Results:</i></b> In 363 patients, 88 and 176 patients had at least 1 species isolated from blood and other sites, respectively. Cytokine levels differed significantly according to organism: <i>Neisseria meningitidis</i> and <i>Streptococcus pneumoniae</i> had the highest (baseline and at 24 h), while <i>Enterococcus faecalis</i> (blood) had the lowest mean cytokine levels. <i>N. meningitidis</i> and <i>Klebsiella pneumoniae</i> had significantly higher cytokine levels at baseline versus 24 h (<i>p</i> = 0.01 and 0.02, respectively); <i>E. faecalis</i> had significantly higher cytokine levels at 24 h versus baseline. Hierarchical clustering heat maps showed that pathogens elicited similar cytokine responses not related to the functional cytokine class. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> The organism type induces different cytokine profiles in septic shock. Specific gram-positive and gram-negative pathogens stimulated similar plasma cytokine-level patterns.