The leukocyte genomic responses and associated biological pathways in sepsis patients with thrombocytopenia, in the propensity matched cohort. (A) Venn-Euler representation of differentially expressed genes in sepsis patients with very low platelet counts (<50 × 109/L, thrombocytopenia) and normal platelet counts (150 × 109 to 399 × 109/L, normal) vs healthy subjects (adjusted P < .05). Red arrows denote overexpressed genes; blue arrows denote underexpressed genes. (B) Dot plot depicting the common response (log2 foldchanges) of patients with very low and normal platelet counts as compared with healthy subjects. ρ, Spearman’s correlation coefficient. (C) Volcano plot illustrating the differences in leukocyte genomic responses (integrating log2 foldchanges and multiple-test adjusted probabilities) between sepsis patients with thrombocytopenia (<50 × 109/L) and normal counts (150 × 109 to 399 × 109/L). Considering adjusted P < .05, 234 genes were identified as differentially expressed. Red dots denote significantly overexpressed genes, whereas blue dots denote significantly underexpressed genes in thrombocytopenic patient samples. Horizontal black line indicates multiple-test adjusted (BH) P < .05 threshold. (D) Overexpressed genes in thrombocytopenic sepsis patients associated with the complement signaling pathway (red bar). Underexpressed genes associated with predominantly leukocyte mobility, adhesion, and extravasation pathways (blue bars). –log (BH) p, negative log-transformed BH adjusted P values. (E) Heatmap plots of significantly (adjusted P < .05) differential gene expression indices pertaining to the complement system and (A) granulocyte adhesion and diapedesis pathways. Red rows denote overexpression; blue rows denote underexpression.
