Amin Afrazi, Chhinder P Sodhi, Misty Good, Hongpeng Jia, Richard Siggers, Ibrahim Yazji, Congrong Ma, Matthew D Neal, Thomas Prindle, Zachary S Grant, Maria F Branca, John Ozolek, Eugene B Chang, David J Hackam
Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is the leading cause of gastrointestinal-related mortality in premature infants, and it develops under conditions of exaggerated TLR4 signaling in the newborn intestinal epithelium. Because NEC does not develop spontaneously, despite the presence of seemingly tonic stimulation of intestinal TLR4, we hypothesized that mechanisms must exist to constrain TLR4 signaling that become diminished during NEC pathogenesis and focused on the intracellular stress response protein and chaperone heat shock protein-70 (Hsp70)...
May 1, 2012: Journal of Immunology