Reviews Natural killer T cells in liver injury, inflammation and cancer
August 2015, Vol. 9, No. 8 , Pages 1077-1085 (doi:10.1586/17474124.2015.1056738)
Hua Wang, and Shi Yin1Department of Oncology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230032,China
2Institute for Liver Diseases, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230032,China
3Departmentof Geriatrics, Affiliated Provincial Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230001,China
*Authors for correspondence: [email protected]
The liver is an organ that has the largest amount of natural killer T(NKT) cells, which play critical roles in the pathogenesis of liver diseases. In this article, the authors summarize recent findings about the roles of NKT cells in liver injury, inflammation, fibrosis, regeneration and cancer. In brief, NKT cells accelerate liver injury by producing pro-inflammatory cytokines and directly killing hepatocytes. NKT cells are involved in complex roles in liver fibrogenesis. For instance, NKT cells inhibit liver fibrosis via suppressing hepatic stellate cell activation and can also promote liver fibrosis via enhancing liver inflammation and injury. Inactivated or weakly activated NKT cells play a minimal role in controlling liver regeneration, whilst activated NKT cells have an inhibitory effect on liver regeneration. In liver cancer, NKT cells play both pro-tumor and anti-tumor roles in controlling tumor progress.
Keywords liver cancer, liver fibrosis, liver injury, liver regeneration, NKT cells
Read More: http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.1586/17474124.2015.1056738
|
发表于 2015-7-22 13:08