Endocrine Abstracts

The first characterised mammalian Toll-like receptor (TLR) was described in 1997, i.e. TLR4, which can detect lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from Gram-negative bacteria. Since then several proteins structurally related to TLR4 were identified (TLR1-10). For example, TLR2 can bind to lipopeptides from Gram-positive bacteria. For both receptors human polymorphisms have been identified (TLR4 up to 14% and TLR2 up to 10% in Europe) and linked to several clinical conditions such as asthm...

Sepsis and septic shock remain a major health concern worldwide, and an intact adrenal cortex glucocorticoid (GC) stress response, is critical for organism to survive. Recently, we and others have shown that adrenal gland expresses members of toll-like receptors (TLRs) family which are known to sense pathogens and induce inflammatory response. Data performed on TLRs deficient mice clearly demonstrate a critical involvement of these receptors in immune-neuroendocrine bidirectio...