Traumatic injuries frequently lead to infection, organ failure, and death. Health care
providers rely on several Injury scoring systems to quantify the extent of injury and to help
predict clinical outcome. Physiological, anatomical, and clinical laboratory analytic scoring
systems (Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation [APACHE], Injury Severity Score
[ISS]) are utilized, with limited success, to predict outcome following injury. The recent
development of techniques for measuring the expression level of all of a person's genes …

Trauma is now the number one health care cost in the United States (1) and a major health
priority throughout the world (2, 3, 4). Traumatic injury frequently leads to subsequent
development of infections, sepsis, and multiple organ dysfunction (5, 6), resulting in high
morbidity and mortality. Multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) is associated with
extended intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital stays and poor prognosis; its
pathophysiology remains an area of intense study (7). The broad range of patient outcomes …