Molecular mechanism of endotoxin tolerance

Molecular mechanisms of endotoxin tolerance.

The phenomenon of endotoxin tolerance has been widely investigated, but to date, the molecular mechanisms of endotoxin tolerance remain to be resolved clearly. The discovery of the Toll-like receptor (TLR) family as the major receptors for lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and other bacterial products has prompted a resurgence of interest in endotoxin tolerance mechanisms. Changes of cell surface molecu...

Endotoxin Tolerance as a Key Mechanism for Immunosuppression

Mechanisms of Endotoxin Tolerance

Healthy male volunteers were rendered tolerant to the pyrogenic and toxic activities of bacterial endotoxin by daily intravenous injections. Five subjects were given 0.5 microg Salmonella typhosa endotoxin for 7 days; four subjects were given Pseudomonas endotoxin, increasing over a period of 30 days from 25 to 250 microg. Reticuloendothelial system (RES) phagocytic activity was assessed by ser...

In vivo endotoxin tolerance

Endotoxin tolerance is defined as a reduced responsiveness to a lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenge following a first encounter with endotoxin. Endotoxin tolerance protects against a lethal challenge of LPS and prevents infection and ischemia-reperfusion damage. Endotoxin tolerance is paralleled by a dramatic reduction of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) production and some other cytokines in respons...

Compartmentalization of tolerance to endotoxin.

BACKGROUND Tolerance to endotoxin has been defined and analyzed either entirely in vivo or entirely in vitro. In contrast, the hyporeactivity of circulating leukocytes reported in patients with sepsis, and often referred to as the phenomenon of tolerance to endotoxin, is an ex vivo observation. Therefore, our objective was to set up an ex vivo model of tolerance to endotoxin. METHODS Mice wer...