TLR4 and Hypertension: In a rat model of hypertension, Chen et al. (2013) discovered that SCU could have tissue-protective and antihypertensive effects by upregulating Mcl1 and downregulating inflammatory and apoptotic factors like TLR4, NF-κB, p65, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-18, Bax, and cleaved-caspase-3 p17.