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Up-regulated TLR2 and TLR4 expressions in liver and spleen during acute murine T. gondii infection

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Abstract

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play a central role in the pathogen clearance and pathological processes. The liver is an important innate immune organ, in which Kupffer cells and hepatocytes are important innate immune cells. However, the role of TLR2 and TLR4 in the liver caused by Toxoplasma gondii infection remains less clear. In this study, mice were infected with T. gondii RH strain and the grades of liver and spleen injuries were histopathologically evaluated. TLR2+ and TLR4+ cells in the livers and spleens were detected by immunohistochemistry, and their messenger RNA (mRNA) expressions were detected using quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The pathological severities in the livers and spleens were increased with time in T. gondii-infected mice. Compared with uninfected controls, obvious TLR2+ and TLR4+ cells were observed in the livers and spleens infected with T. gondii at 8 days post-infection, accompanied with significantly over-expressed mRNA levels of TLR2 and TLR4 in the livers and spleens after infection. Our data indicated that increased levels of TLR2 and TLR4 in the liver and spleen may play an important role during acute T. gondii infection.

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Acknowledgments

Research reported in this publication was supported in part by the Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 81271854 and 81471973), the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province, China (no. 2014A020212108), and the Project on Brand Professional Construction of Sun Yat-sen University (Fangli Lu), and by the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province, China (nos. 2013B021800043 and 2014A020212212) (Shiguang Huang).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Medicine, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510080, Guangdong, China

    Jialing Peng, Xiancan Lin, Hongchun Lin, Zexin Guo & Yuqing Liang

  2. Department of Parasitology, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510080, Guangdong, China

    Shengjie Chen, Jinfeng Liu & Fangli Lu

  3. Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Control (Sun Yat-sen University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, 510080, Guangdong, China

    Shengjie Chen, Jinfeng Liu & Fangli Lu

  4. School of Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, Guangdong, China

    Shiguang Huang

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  1. Jialing Peng
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  2. Xiancan Lin
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  3. Hongchun Lin
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  4. Shengjie Chen
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  5. Jinfeng Liu
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  6. Zexin Guo
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  7. Yuqing Liang
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  8. Shiguang Huang
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  9. Fangli Lu
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Shiguang Huang or Fangli Lu.

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All experiments were performed in compliance with the requirements of the Animal Ethics Committee at Sun Yat-sen University.

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Jialing Peng and Xiancan Lin contributed equally to this work.

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Peng, J., Lin, X., Lin, H. et al. Up-regulated TLR2 and TLR4 expressions in liver and spleen during acute murine T. gondii infection. Parasitol Res 115, 4681–4686 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-016-5226-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-016-5226-8

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