Tempo di marzo o di valse: migration kinetics of leucocytes that home to the liver.

摘要

Lymphocytes are implicated in the pathogenesis of many inflammatory liver diseases. In autoimmune hepatitis, lymphocytes respond to autoantigens on hepatocytes to mediate hepatocellular damage (1) whereas in viral hepatitis, lymphocytes destroy infected hepatocytes that express viral antigens (2). In addition to recruitment in response to a specific antigen or an inflammatory signal, there is evidence that the normal liver is patrolled by lymphocytes and dendritic cells (DC) that provide immune surveillance for the detection and rapid response to infecting pathogens (3, 4). In chronic inflammatory liver disease, these processes are dysregulated and inappropriate inflammation is established that persists, leading to chronic hepatitis, fibrosis and cirrhosis.