Chronic systemic inflammation links periodontal disease and diabetes to increased incidence of serious comorbidities. Activation of TLRs, particularly TLR2 and TLR4, promotes chronic systemic inflammation. Human B cells have been generally thought to lack these TLRs. However, recent work showed that an increased percentage of circulating B cells from inflammatory disease patients express TLR2 a...

During vascular disease and following injury, vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) proliferate and produce inflammation-promoting cytokines and chemokines. Similar phenotypic changes can be elicited in vitro by activation of Toll-like receptors (TLR) within VSMC. TLR-activated VSMC also produce IL-1 alpha, but it is unknown whether endogenous IL-1 alpha stimulates VSMC in an autocrine manner. He...

Toll-like receptors (TLR) represent the best characterized receptor family transducing innate immune responses, the first line of defense against microbial invaders. This study was designed to investigate whether responses through TLR inhibit HIV-1 replication in its primary target cells. Primary human macrophages and lymphocytes from several different donors and HIV-1 infection in tissue cultu...

The innate immune response is mediated in part by pattern recognition receptors including Toll-like receptors (TLRs). The pleural mesothelial cells (PMCs) that line the pleural surface are in direct contact with pleural fluid and accordingly carry the risk of exposure to infiltrating microorganisms or their components in an event of a complicated parapneumonic effusion. Here we show that murine...

Blastocystis spp. is a common enteric stramenopile parasite that colonizes the colon of hosts of a diverse array of species, including humans. It has been shown to compromise intestinal epithelial cell barrier integrity and mediate the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Mucosal epithelial surfaces, including the intestinal epithelium, are increasingly recognized to perform...

Malaria-induced sepsis is associated with an intense proinflammatory cytokinemia for which the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. It has been demonstrated that experimental infection of humans with Plasmodium falciparum primes Toll-like receptor (TLR)-mediated proinflammatory responses. Nevertheless, the relevance of this phenomenon during natural infection and, more importantly, the ...

AIMS Inflammation plays a key role in acute coronary syndromes (ACS). Toll-like receptors (TLR) on leucocytes mediate inflammation and immune responses. We characterized leucocytes and TLR expression within coronary thrombi and compared cytokine levels from the site of coronary occlusion with aortic blood (AB) in ACS patients. METHODS AND RESULTS In 18 ACS patients, thrombi were collected by ...

BACKGROUND Following peroral Toxoplasma (T.) gondii infection, susceptible mice develop acute ileitis due to a microbiota-dependent Th1 type immunopathology. Toll-like-receptor (TLR)-9 is known to recognize bacterial DNA and mediates intestinal inflammation, but its impact on intestinal microbiota composition and extra-intestinal sequelae following T. gondii infection has not yet been elucidate...

Although TLR are often studied on DC because of their ability to bridge innate and adaptive defenses, TLR are also expressed by epithelial cells. Because the majority of cancers are carcinomas, and thus of epithelial origin, we wanted to know whether a carcinoma and DC responded similarly to a TLR agonist. We found the mammary carcinoma 4T1 and CD11c(+) DC both secreted proinflammatory chemokin...

Adjuvants improve host responsiveness to co-delivered vaccines through a variety of mechanisms. Agents that trigger cells expressing Toll-like receptors (TLR) activate an innate immune response that enhances the induction of vaccine-specific immunity. When administered in combination with vaccines designed to prevent or slow tumor growth, TLR agonists have significantly improved the generation ...