Year: 2008
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The liver is the largest organ in the body with essential metabolic activities. In the liver\\nlarge amounts of oxygenated blood carried by the hepatic artery are used to mobilize\\nenergy from dietary components. Toxic compounds, derived from food are transported\\nfrom the bowel via the portal vein and detoxifi ed in the liver. In order to avoid unwarranted\\nresponses to harmless dietary proteins and components of the commensal intestinal\\nfl ora, tight control of the local immune response in the liver is mandatory. However as\\na consequence the liver is a target for chronic viral and parasitic infections and metastasis\\nof malignant diseases develop relatively easily in the liver. To meet these specifi c requirements,\\nthe repertoire of immune cells present in the liver differs dramatically from\\nthose in other non-lymphoid tissues of the body, and is considered to play a specialized\\nrole in hepatic immune responses.\\nThe liver hosts various unique resident cell types with immune potential, such as a lymphoid\\npopulation selectively enriched for CD8+ T cells, NK cells and NKT cells, and\\ncells with accessory immunologic functions such as dendritic cells (DC), Kupffer cells,\\nsinusoidal endothelial cells and biliary epithelial cells. It is hypothesized that DC, the\\nmost potent antigen presenting cells, are the key players in maintaining the fi ne balance\\nbetween immune responsiveness and unresponsiveness in the liver. Under normal\\ncircumstances, most peripheral tissues, such as the liver, contain immature DC, whose\\nfunction is uptake and processing of antigen. Under steady state conditions there is a\\ncontinuous migration of DC towards the draining lymph nodes (LN) and this process is\\naccelerated upon antigenic stimulation. During this migration DC mature and acquire a\\nstrong T cell stimulatory capacity.
Author: Brenda M. Bosma
Language: English
Subfield: Immunology
Field: Immunology and Microbiology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1788809310