Studies have shown that the expression of TLR4 in the gut epithelium is increased in human and mouse intestinal inflammation (Leaphart et al., 2007; Egan et al., 2016), and overexpression of TLR4 leads to a signaling cascade that induces nuclear translocation of NF-kB and then promotes overtranscription of proinflammatory cytokines, then leads to the incidence of NEC (Hackam and Sodhi, 2018). Here, TLR4 is linked to necrotizing enterocolitis.