Increased whole blood FFA2/GPR43 receptor expression is associated with increased 30-day survival in patients with sepsis

Objective Sepsis is a condition associated with a dysregulated inflammatory response to infection with significant morbidity. Recent advances have elucidated the vital role that the short chain fatty acid glycoprotein receptor 43 (FFA2/GPR43) plays in inflammatory and immunomodulatory pathways. We hypothesized that elevated whole blood GPR43 RNA expression would be associated with increased 30-day survival in patients admitted with sepsis. Patients (n = 93) admitted to the intensive care unit with the diagnosis of sepsis underwent quantitative real time PCR within 48 h of intensive care unit admission. Clinical and demographical parameters were retrospectively extracted from the chart and compared to quantitative measurements of GPR43 RNA expression. Results Utilizing logistic regression, we found that the odds of mortality decreased for every one-unit increase in GPR43 RNA expression for patients that survived to 30 days [OR = 0.71; 95% CI (0.50, 0.99) p = 0.049]. Using linear regression, we determined that the increase in whole blood GPR43 expression was not associated with whole blood white cell count [r = 0.04; 95% CI (−0.16, 0.24); p = 0.70] or body mass index [r = − 0.07; 95% CI (− 0.23, 0.18); p = 0.81]. We conclude that the GPR43 receptor plays an integral role in survival during and after sepsis.