BAK1 and Sepsis: In sepsis, severe inflammatory and metabolic stress tilts this balance toward pro-apoptotic members such as Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax) and Bcl-2 homologous antagonist/killer (Bak), while anti-apoptotic proteins (e.g., Bcl-2, Bcl-xL) are downregulated [48,60].