Cellular metabolic regulators: Novel indicators of low-grade inflammation in humans

Introduction The Toll like receptor 4 (TLR4) ligand endotoxin triggers robust systemic inflammatory responses in humans at doses > 1.0 ng/kg. In this study we tested the hypothesis that evidence of TLR4-induced responses would be detectable in leukocytes challenged with endotoxin doses that are below the threshold needed to trigger a characteristic systemic inflammatory phenotype in humans.