[Kawasaki disease and innate immunity]

Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute self-limited systemic vasculitis, and could develop in association with innate immune disorders. An innate immune system appears to play a key role in the development of KD, because pathogen-associated molecular patterns(PAMPs) and damage-associated molecular patterns(DAMPs) are elevated in the sera at acute phase KD, and oral administration of innate immune Nod1 ligand induces KD-like coronary arteritis in mice. PAMPs can be produced massively from microbes in a certain condition. DAMPs are produced from the host cells by the stimulation of PAMPs. We propose a hypothesis that PAMPs and DAMPs activate innate immune system and vascular cells through innate immune pattern recognition receptors(PRR) to release chemokines and cytokines, and induce KD in genetically predisposed individuals.