The liver works as a school to educate regulatory immune cells

Abstract

Because of its unique blood supply, the liver maintains a special local immune tolerogenic microenvironment. Moreover, the liver can impart this immune tolerogenic effect on other organs, thus inducing systemic immune tolerance. The network of hepatic regulatory cells is an important mechanism underlying liver tolerance. Many types of liver-resident antigen-presenting cells (APCs) have immune regulatory function, and more importantly, they can also induce the differentiation of circulating immune cells into regulatory cells to further extend systemic tolerance. Thus, the liver can be seen as a type of 'school', where liver APCs function as 'teachers' and circulating immune cells function as 'students.'. © 2013 CSI and USTC. All rights reserved.