MYD88 and peritonitis: Our results suggest that the absence of MyD88 balances the innate immune responses in a favorable manner by attenuating deleterious responses, thus preventing excessive cytokine release while maintaining intact protective IFNs responsible for anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and/or anti-parasitic activities in severe septic peritonitis (see Table 2; Figure 10) and as such, the post-operative survival rates of mice were increased (24).