Control of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the lung requires the recognition of either lipopolysaccharide or flagellin.

Acute lung infection due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an increasingly serious problem that results in high mortality especially in the compromised host. In this study, we set out to ascertain what components of the TLR system are most important for innate immunity to this microorganism. We previously demonstrated that TLR2,4-/- mice were not hypersusceptible to infection by a wild-type P. aeruginosa strain. However, we now find that mice lacking both TLR2 and TLR4 (TLR2,4-/- mice) are hypersusceptible to infection following challenge with a P. aeruginosa mutant devoid of flagellin production. We demonstrate that this hypersusceptibility is largely due to a lack of innate defense by the host that fails to control bacterial replication in the lung. Further evidence that a response to flagellin is a key factor in the failure of TLR2,4-/- mice to control the infection with the mutant strain was obtained by demonstrating that the intrapulmonary administration of flagellin over a 18 h period following infection, saved 100% of TLR2,4-/- mice from death. We conclude that the interactions of either TLR4 with LPS or TLR5 with flagellin can effectively defend the lung from P. aeruginosa infection and the absence of a response by both results in hypersusceptibility to this infection.