CDH5 and Sepsis: As we had previously identified procalcitonin to be a potent mediator of VE-cadherin disassembly, we next confirmed hyperprocalcitonemia in septic mice (increase from 1.2 ± 0.2 ng/mL in sham-operated to 9.5 ± 0.4 ng/mL in septic animals 18 h after sepsis induction, P < 0.001, n = 5–18 mice/group, Fig. 2c).