Liver Transplant Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Liver Transplant, including details on risks, prognosis, procedure, surgery, organ donation.

Immune role of hepatic TLR-4 revealed by orthotopic mouse liver transplantation.

John B, Klein I, Crispe IN

The David H Smith Center for Vaccine Biology and Immunology, The Aab Institute for Biomedical Research, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14642, USA. beena_john@urmc.rochester.edu

Activated CD8+ T cells migrate to the liver at the end of an immune response and go through apoptosis there, but this mechanism is impaired in mice lacking Toll-like receptor-4. This allowed us to test the importance of liver trapping in an ongoing immune response. In the absence of Toll-like receptor-4, reduced liver accumulation was associated with an increase in the circulating CD8+ T cell pool, more long-lived memory T cells and increased CD8+ T cell memory responses. Using experimental orthotopic liver transplantation, we showed that the effect of Toll-like receptor-4 on the formation of the CD8+ T cell memory resides in the liver. CONCLUSION: These studies reveal a new function for the liver, which is to regulate the magnitude of T cell memory responses through a Toll-like receptor-4-dependent mechanism.

Published 28 December 2006 in Hepatology, 45(1): 178-86.
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