When separate comparisons were done between TNF-α produced by PBMCs of healthy control subjects and by survivors and non-survivors of sepsis, production of TNF-α was significantly lower in both survivors and non-survivors on days 3, 7 and 10 when LPS was used as a stimulus; this was not the case when Pam3Cys was used as a stimulus (Additional file 2: Table S2). The gene discussed is TNF; the disease is Sepsis.