Abstract Clinical sepsis is a highly dynamic state that progresses at variable rates and has life-threatening consequences. Staging patients along the sepsis timeline requires a thorough knowledge of the evolution of cellular and molecular events at the tissue level. Here, we investigated the kidney, an organ central to the pathophysiology of sepsis. Single cell RNA sequencing revealed the involvement of various cell populations in injury and repair to be temporally organized and highly orchestrated. We identified key changes in gene expression that altered cellular functions and can explain features of clinical sepsis. These changes converged towards a remarkable global cell-cell communication failure and organ shutdown at a well-defined point in the sepsis timeline. Importantly, this time point was also a transition towards the emergence of recovery pathways. This rigorous spatial and temporal definition of murine sepsis will uncover precise biomarkers and targets that can help stage and treat human sepsis.

The orchestrated cellular and molecular responses of the kidney to endotoxin define the sepsis timeline