Macrophages and dendritic cells in the development of liver injury leading to liver failure

Liver failure (LF) continues to be a serious problem due to different underlying disorders. Not only hepatocytes but Kupffer cells (KCs) and dendritic cells (DCs) are of importance in this instance. We wanted to investigate the possible role of KCs and liver DCs in the development of liver injury in patients with liver failure. Liver specimens from 23 patients who died after liver failure were examined for the presence and distribution of CD68-positive KCs and CD83-positive DCs by immunohistochemistry. The distribution of the CD83-positive DC in the sinusoidal and the periportal spaces was not even. While 39.1% of patients had a high sinusoidal density of CD83-positive cells, 60.9% demonstrated a high density of CD83-positive cells in the periportal tract. The number of CD83-positive DCs in periportal tracts in patients with advanced liver fibrosis (n=5) were high, while those with mild liver fibrosis (n=18) had low numbers of mature dendritic cells (χ2=4.107; p=0.043). In addition, all patients with intensive fibrosis had low counts of CD68-positive KC’s in portal tracts vs patients with mild fibrosis of which 67% had high counts (χ2=6.97; p=0.008). In seven of the patients with moderate steatosis (87.5%) low numbers of CD68-positive KCs were found in sinusoids, in contrast to those with severe steatosis, where 12 patients (80%) had high KC counts (χ2=13.4; p less than 0.001). The distribution and number of CD68-positive KC and CD83-positive DC reflect the progression of liver fibrosis leading to liver failure.