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Updated: Jul 5, 2025

Selective Harvesting of Marginating-hepatic Leukocytes
Published on: July 21, 2016
The role of natural killer T cells in liver transplantation
Wenchao Zhao1, Mingqian Li1, Shifei Song1
1Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, General Surgery Center, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, China.
Abstract:
Natural killer T cells (NKTs) are innate-like lymphocytes that are abundant in the liver and participate in liver immunity. NKT cells express both NK cell and T cell markers, modulate innate and adaptive immune responses. Type I and Type II NKT cells are classified according to the TCR usage, while they recognize lipid antigen in a non-classical major histocompatibility (MHC) molecule CD1d-restricted manner. Once activated, NKT cells can quickly produce cytokines and chemokines to negatively or positively regulate the immune responses, depending on the different NKT subsets. In liver transplantation (LTx), the immune reactions in a series of processes determine the recipients' long-term survival, including ischemia-reperfusion injury, alloresponse, and post-transplant infection. This review provides insight into the research on NKT cells subpopulations in LTx immunity during different processes, and discusses the shortcomings of the current research on NKT cells. Additionally, the CD56-expressing T cells are recognized as a NK-like T cell population, they were also discussed during these processes.
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