TLR2 and bacterial infectious disease with sepsis: To directly test the beneficial effect of Wolbachia/TLR2-mediated modulation of macrophage function in bacterial sepsis, macrophages from naïve wild type and TLR2-/- mice were pre-treated with LsAg or Wolbachia preparations in vitro and then adoptively transferred into naïve mice that subsequently received an i.p. E. coli injection.