title: Adaptive immunity in the liver.
abstract: The anatomical architecture of the human liver and the diversity of its immune components endow the liver with its physiological function of immune competence. Adaptive immunity is a major arm of the immune system that is organized in a highly specialized and systematic manner, thus providing long-lasting protection with immunological memory. Adaptive immunity consists of humoral immunity and cellular immunity. Cellular immunity is known to have a crucial role in controlling infection, cancer and autoimmune disorders in the liver. In this article, we will focus on hepatic virus infections, hepatocellular carcinoma and autoimmune disorders as examples to illustrate the current understanding of the contribution of T cells to cellular immunity in these maladies. Cellular immune suppression is primarily responsible for chronic viral infections and cancer. However, an uncontrolled auto-reactive immune response accounts for autoimmunity. Consequently, these immune abnormalities are ascribed to the quantitative and functional changes in adaptive immune cells and their subsets, innate immunocytes, chemokines, cytokines and various surface receptors on immune cells. A greater understanding of the complex orchestration of the hepatic adaptive immune regulators during homeostasis and immune competence are much needed to identify relevant targets for clinical intervention to treat immunological disorders in the liver.
authors.affiliation: Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Clinical Immunology, University of California Davis School of Medicine, Davis, CA 95616, USA.|Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230022, China.
authors.forename: Zongwen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shuai
authors.affiliation: Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Clinical Immunology, University of California Davis School of Medicine, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
authors.forename: Miranda Wy
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Leung
authors.affiliation: Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Clinical Immunology, University of California Davis School of Medicine, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
authors.forename: Xiaosong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Clinical Immunology, University of California Davis School of Medicine, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
authors.forename: Weici
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Clinical Immunology, University of California Davis School of Medicine, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
authors.forename: Guoxiang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Clinical Immunology, University of California Davis School of Medicine, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
authors.forename: Patrick Sc
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Leung
authors.affiliation: Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Clinical Immunology, University of California Davis School of Medicine, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eric Gershwin
mesh_terms: D056704:Adaptive Immunity / Q000276:immunology*; D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D008954:Models, Biological; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology