Abstract

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are a family of pattern recognition receptors that are best-known for their role in host defence from infection. Emerging evidence also suggests that TLRs have an important role in maintaining tissue homeostasis by regulating the inflammatory and tissue repair responses to injury. The development of cancer has been associated with microbial infection, injury, inflammation and tissue repair. Here we discuss how the function of TLRs may relate to these processes in the context of carcinogenesis.

Author affiliations

1. Seth Rakoff-Nahoum and Ruslan Medzhitov are at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Immunobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06510, USA.

Correspondence to: Seth Rakoff-Nahoum¹ Email: seth.rakoff-nahoum@yale.edu

Published online 4 December 2008

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