• Sylvia Knapp, Catharina W Wieland, Cornelis van 't Veer, Osamu Takeuchi, Shizuo Akira, Sandrine Florquin, and Tom van der Poll.
• Laboratory of Experimental Internal Medicine, Department of Pathology, Tropical Medicine and AIDS, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
• J. Immunol. 2004 Mar 1; 172 (5): 3132-8.

AbstractToll-like receptors (TLR) are crucial pattern recognition receptors in innate immunity. The importance of TLR2 in host defense against Gram-positive bacteria has been suggested by the fact that this receptor recognizes major Gram-positive cell wall components, such as peptidoglycan and lipoteichoic acid. To determine the role of TLR2 in pulmonary Gram-positive infection, we first established that TLR2 is indispensable for alveolar macrophage responsiveness toward Streptococcus pneumoniae. Nonetheless, TLR2 gene-deficient mice intranasally inoculated with S. pneumoniae at doses varying from nonlethal (with complete clearance of the infection) to lethal displayed only a modestly reduced inflammatory response in their lungs and an unaltered antibacterial defense when compared with normal wild-type mice. These data suggest that TLR2 plays a limited role in the innate immune response to pneumococcal pneumonia, and that additional pattern recognition receptors likely are involved in host defense against this common respiratory pathogen.

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