Premetastatic milieu explained by TLR4 agonist-mediated homeostatic inflammation.

Accumulating evidence suggests that Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), a sensor for danger signals, is expressed not only in immune cells, but also in resident epithelial cells, and appears to participate in tissue homeostasis. To explain the premetastatic microenvironment created by the newly discovered endogenous TLR4 ligands, I propose a hypothesis of homeostatic inflammation that includes the classical danger hypothesis.