Science review: Key inflammatory and stress pathways in critical illness - The central role of the Toll-like receptors

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

48 Scopus citations

Abstract

A pure reductionist approach can sometimes be used to solve an exceptionally complicated biologic problem, and sepsis is nothing if not complicated. A serious infection promptly leads to changes in many aspects of host physiology, including alterations in circulation, metabolism, renal, hepatic, and neuroendocrine function; all of these changes happen at once, and each influences one another. It is difficult to tease apart a problem of this sort, if only because the systems affected are so profoundly interactive. The key to understanding sepsis, insofar as we do understand it at present, was found in the use of genetic tools to study the very earliest events that take place at the interface of the pathogen and the host. The continued application of both forward and reverse genetic methods, in both mammals and insects, is steadily revealing the central biochemical events that occur during infection.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)39-46
Number of pages8
JournalCritical Care
Volume7
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2003

Keywords

  • Forward genetics
  • Infection
  • Innate immunity
  • Sepsis
  • Shock
  • Toll-like receptors
  • Tumor necrosis factor

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine

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