Review Article

The Expression and Functions of Toll-Like Receptors in Atherosclerosis

Table 1

Exogenous and Endogenous TLR ligands. Ligands in italics represent ligands for which a link to atherosclerosis has been identified.

TLR ReceptorExogenous LigandEndogenous Ligand

TLR1Mycoplasma tri-acyl lipopeptides [184], N.meningitides soluble factors (with TLR2) [185]

TLR2Pam3CSK4 (synthetic TLR2/TLR1 agonist) [127],Necrotic cells [186189],
Mycobacterial lipoprotein (with TLR1) [190],Apoliprotein CIII [120],
Bacterial lipoproteins (with TLR6) [191, 192]Oxidised LDL [36],
Yeast carbohydrates, [192]Serum amyloid A [193],
Borrelia burgdorferi lipoprotein (with TLR1) [194]Amyloid beta [195]
Staph epidermidis phenol-soluble modulin [196]Versican [110],
Viral envelope glycoproteins [197, 198]
Peptidoglycan (Gram + bacteria) [199]
Glycoinositolphospholipids (Trypanozoma cruzi),
Glycolipids (Treponema maltophilum),
Porins (Neisseria), Zymosan (fungi),
Atypical LPS (Leptospira interrogans and Porphyromonas gingivalis) [200202]

TLR2/TLR4HSP60 [203],HSP60, HSP70, Gp96, HMGB1, [204211]
Chlamydia pneumoniae [138],Hyaluronan fragment [109, 212, 213]
HSP60 from Chlamydia pneumoniae [106],Biglycan [214]
Porphyromonas gingivalis [215]

TLR3Viral dsDNA [48, 90, 216]mRNA [217]

TLR3/TLR9CMV [218, 219]

TLR4Lipopolysaccharide, [220224]Lung surfactant protein-A, [225]
Viral envelope glycoproteins, [226, 227]Tenascin C, [108]
Taxol (plant), RSV fusion protein, MMTV envelope proteins, [200]Fibrinogen, [228, 229]
HSP60 from Chlamydia pneumoniae [93, 105]Fibronectin EDA, [230]
Heparan sulphate, [231233]
Beta-defensin 2, [234] [235]
Minimally-modified LDL, [113, 236]
Oxidised LDL, [10]
Amyloid beta peptide and oxididised LDL [115]

TLR5Bacterial flagellin [237, 238]

TLR6Mycoplasma di-acyl lipopeptides [239],
Group B Strep heat-labile soluble factor, Staph phenol-soluble modulin [200]

TLR7Various synthetic compounds including imidazoquinoline, loxoribine and bropirimine [200]

TLR7/TLR8Single stranded RNA [240242]

TLR7/TLR9Nucleic acid-containing immune complexes [243245]

TLR9Hypomethylated CpG motifs in microbial DNA [241, 246, 247],
HSV-2 [241]