s / Alcohol 47 (2013) 567–576 572 17. Toll-like receptor 2 modulates the expression of T cell transcription factors following alcohol and burn injury X. Li, J.L. Rendon, M.A. Choudhry, Alcohol Research Program, Burn & Shock Trauma Research Institute, Department of Surgery, Loyola University Chicago Health Sciences Division, Maywood, IL 60153, USA Previous studies from our laboratory have shown that acute alcohol (ethanol) intoxication combined with burn injury suppresses T cell proliferation, IL-2 and IFN-g production. We further found that T cell stimulation with Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) agonist (HKLM) prevents the decrease in T cell IFN-g release following ethanol and burn injury. This study examined the effect of ethanol and burn injury on T cell transcription factors (e.g., NFAT, Tbx21, Jun and Fos) and determined whether TLR2 agonist modulates the expression of these factors following ethanol and burn injury. To test this, male C57/BL6 mice (w25 g) were gavaged with ethanol (w2.9 mg/kg) to achieve a blood ethanol level of w100 mg/dl prior to receiving w12.5% total body surface area sham or burn injury. One day after injury, mice were sacrificed and splenic T cells were isolated. T cells were cultured with platebound anti-CD3 antibody in the presence or absence of TLR2 agonist (HKLM 108 cells/ml) for 48 h. Supernatants were collected for the measurement of IFN-g by ELISA and cells were lysed. The cells lysates were analyzed for NFAT, Tbx21, Jun and Fos mRNA expression by RT-PCR. As reported earlier, there was a significant decrease in IFN-g release following ethanol and burn injury compared to shams. T cells stimulated with anti-CD3 combined with TLR2 agonist did not show a decrease in IFN-g release following ethanol and burn injury. This was accompanied with a significant decrease in NFAT, Tbx21, Jun and Fos expression in T cells stimulated with anti-CD3 following ethanol and burn injury. However T cells stimulated with anti-CD3 combined with TLR2 agonist did not exhibit a decrease in expression of these transcription factors. Together, these findings suggest that TLR2 stimulation of T cells normalizes IFN-g by modulating NFAT, Tbx21, Jun and Fos expression following ethanol intoxication combined with burn injury (Supported by NIH R01 AA015731 [MAC], F30 AA020167 [JR] and the Dr. Ralph and Marian C. Falk Medical