Cited by 373Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration MechanismsImmune Response and InflammationAlcohol Consumption and Health Effects

Critical role of TLR4 response in the activation of microglia induced by ethanol

Open access
Fernandez-Lizarbe, Sara, Pascual, Maria, Guerri, Consuelo·2009·The Journal of Immunology

Abstract

Microglial cells are the primary immune effector cells in the brain and play a pivotal role in the neuroinflammatory processes associated with a variety of neurological and pathological disorders. Alcohol consumption induces brain damage, although the neuropathological processes are poorly understood. We previously suggested that ethanol promotes inflammatory processes in the brain, up-regulating inflammatory mediators and signaling pathways associated with IL-1RI/TLR4 receptors. In the present study we investigate whether ethanol induces microglia activation by stimulating TLR4 response and whether this response causes neuronal death and contributes to ethanol-induced neuroinflammatory damage. We demonstrate that ethanol activates microglía and stimulates NF-kappaB, MAPKs, and MyD88-independent (IFN regulatory factor-3, IFN-beta) pathways to trigger the production of inflammatory mediators, causing neuronal death. The inflammatory response induced by ethanol is completely abrogated in microglia of TLR4-deficient mice (TLR4(-/-)), thus supporting the role of these receptors in microglia activation and neuronal death. In accord with the in vitro findings, acute ethanol administration induces microglia activation (CD11b(+) cells) in cerebral cortex of TLR4(+/+) mice, but not in TLR4(-/-) mice. Taken together, our results not only provide the first evidence of the critical role of the TLR4 response in the ethanol-induced microglia activation, but also new insight into the basic mechanisms participating in ethanol-induced neuroinflammatory damage.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.4049/jimmunol.0803590

Cites

70 of 70 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Fernandez-Lizarbe, S., Pascual, M., & Guerri, C.
Affiliations
  • Department of Cellular Pathology, Centro de Investigación Príncipe Felipe , Valencia,
  • Centro de Investigacion Principe Felipe (ES)
Venue
The Journal of Immunology
Published
2009-10-01
Volume
183
Issue
7
Pages
4733-4744
ISSN
  • 0022-1767 (ISSN-L)
  • 1550-6606
OpenAlex
W2145136979
Cited by
373
References
70
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 29 · 2020: 32 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 31 · 2016: 28 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 29 · 2013: 26 · 2012: 20
FWCI
8.92
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • The Journal of Immunology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
  • Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › Immune Response and Inflammation
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pathology and Forensic Medicine › Alcohol Consumption and Health Effects
Keywords
TLR4, microglial activation, ethanol, neuroinflammation, neuronal cell death, NF-κB signaling, MAPK signaling, MyD88-independent pathway, interferon-beta, IL-1 receptor, TLR4-deficient mice, cerebral cortex, alcohol-induced brain damage
MeSH terms
Ethanol, Animals, Animals, Newborn, Cells, Cultured, Female, Injections, Intraperitoneal, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Neurons, Cell Death, Rats, Wistar, Microglia, Mice, Knockout, Inflammation Mediators, Toll-Like Receptor 4, Mice, Rats

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review