Several studies have proposed that genetic variation in TNFRSF1A and TNFRSF1B was associated with susceptibility to inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, such as tuberculosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease [32, 33, 34, 35] . However, up to now, only one case control study investigated associations between TNFRSF1A and TNFRSF1B polymorphisms and sepsis susceptibility [36] . Four potentially functional SNPs in TNFRSF1A and TNFRSF1B were genotyped in our study. However, none showed association with susceptibility to or death from severe sepsis in Chinese Han population. Our findings were consistent with the results of Gordon et al. that five functional SNPs in TNFRSF1A and TNFRSF1B were not associated with susceptibility to or outcomes from sepsis in Caucasian population [36] .