TLR9 and gastric cancer: Moreover, we found an association between TLR9 rs5743836 C-allele with a lower PGI level, indicative of advanced stage of atrophy in AAG [20], with an increased TLR9 expression (Figure 6) and in GC with an increase in the pro-inflammatory cytokines, IL-8 (Figure 6), which is known to be induced by H. pylori infection in GC [14].