However, recent studies have revealed that some inflammatory markers such as the high-mobility group box-1 protein (HMGB1) [8-12], the lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP) [13-16] and the Interleukin-6 (IL-6) [17-20] may be detectable already in the early state of infection and bacteraemia. The gene discussed is LBP; the disease is infection.