title: Staying local-antigen presentation in the liver.
abstract: The liver is known as organ with unique immune competence. Besides its unique microenvironment that is determined by gut-derived portal venous blood constituents and the presence of enzymes with immune regulatory properties, liver antigen presenting cell populations regulate antigen-specific immunity in a local fashion. In addition to bone marrow-derived dendritic cells and myeloid cells such as macrophages and monocytes, also truly liver-resident cell populations function as antigen presenting cells such as liver sinusoidal endothelial cells and hepatocytes. The functional outcome of antigen-presentation by these cell populations is diverse and ranges from generation of regulatory CD4 cells, to induction of memory CD8 T cells or deletional tolerance, which generates a complex network of antigen-presenting cells that determines hepatic immune regulation and local immune surveillance against viral infection.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Immunology and Experimental Oncology Technische Universität München, Germany. Electronic address: percy.knolle@tum.de.
authors.forename: Percy A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Knolle
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017951:Antigen Presentation; D000938:Antigen-Presenting Cells / Q000276:immunology*; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D060833:Cellular Microenvironment / Q000276:immunology; D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007108:Immune Tolerance; D007156:Immunologic Memory; D007157:Immunologic Surveillance; D008099:Liver / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D050378:T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / Q000502:physiology*; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000276:immunology*