Phenotype transition of monocytes and liver injury

摘要

To the Editor: We read with great interest the recent article by Caroline et al. investigating disparate biological responses of Kupffer cells (KCs) and inflammatory mononuclear phagocytes (iMNPs) in biliary obstruction and cholestasis (1). While KCs are characterized by the cell-surface maker of F4/80~+ CD11b~(-/1o)Ly-6C~(10), iMNPs are denned by their cell-surface expression of F4/ 80~+ CD11b~+ Ly-6C~(hi) in mice. In their analysis, iMNPs accumulated in bile duct obstructed livers and synthesized more pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines than KCs, and KCs regulated the infiltration of iMNPs at the onset of liver injury. These findings suggested that iMNPs might play a detrimental role in liver injury, which was differentiated from KCs (1).