Résumé : The occurrence of severe sepsis may be associated with deficient pro-inflammatory cytokine production. Transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGFbeta-1) predominantly inhibits inflammation and may simultaneously promote IL-17 production. Interleukin-17 (IL-17) is a recently described pro-inflammatory cytokine, which may be important in auto-immunity and infection. We investigated the hypothesis that the onset of sepsis is related to differential TGFbeta-1 and IL-17 gene expression.