Toll-like receptor 8 agonist and bacteria trigger potent activation of innate immune cells in human liver.

ABSTRACT: The ability of innate immune cells to sense and respond to impending danger varies by anatomical location. The liver is considered tolerogenic but is still capable of mounting a successful immune response to clear various infections. To understand whether hepatic immune cells tune their response to different infectious challenges, we probed mononuclear cells purified from human healthy and diseased livers with distinct pathogen-associated molecules. We discovered that only the TLR8 agonist ssRNA40 selectively activated liver-resident innate immune cells to produce substantial quantities of IFN-γ. We identified CD161(Bright) mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) and CD56(Bright) NK cells as the responding liver-resident innate immune cells. Their activation was not directly induced by the T

SUBMITTER: Jo J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4072808 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature