Plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 (PAI-1) levels are consistently elevated in patients with severe pneumonia and sepsis and highly predictive for an unfavorable outcome. In addition, pneumonia is associated with strongly elevated PAI-1 levels in the pulmonary compartment. However, whether PAI-1 causally affects antibacterial host defense in vivo remains unknown. We report here that pneumonia caused by the common respiratory pathogen Klebsiella pneumoniae is associated with local production of PAI-1 in the lungs of wild-type mice. PAI-1 deficiency impaired host defense as reflected by enhanced lethality and increased bacterial growth and dissemination in mice with a targeted deletion of the PAI-1 gene. Conversely, transgenic overexpression of PAI-1 in the lung using a replication-defective adenoviral vector markedly improved host defense against Klebsiella pneumonia and sepsis. PAI-1 deficiency reduced accumulation of neutrophils in the lungs during pneumonia, whereas PAI-1 overexpression in healthy lungs resulted in neutrophil influx, suggesting that PAI-1 protects the host against Klebsiella pneumonia by promoting neutrophil recruitment to the pulmonary compartment. These data demonstrate for the first time that PAI-1 is essential for host defense against severe Gram-negative pneumonia.