Innate immune recognition and regulation in liver injury: A brief report from a series of studies

The discovery of innate immune receptors and the emergence of liver immunology (high content of NK and NKT cells in liver) led to the second research summit in innate immunity since the finding of NK cells in the middle 1970s. Liver disease is one of the most dangerous threats to humans, and the progress in innate immunology and liver immunology made it possible to re-explain the cellular and molecular immune mechanisms of liver disease. In the past ten years, we have found that innate recognition of hepatic NK and NKT subsets were involved in murine liver injury. We established a novel NK cell-dependent acute murine hepatitis model by activating Toll-like receptor-3 (TLR-3) with an injection of poly I:C, which may mimic mild viral hepatitis (such as Chronic Hepatitis B). We observed that a network of innate immune cells including NK, NKT and Kupffer cells is involved in liver immune injury in our established NK cell-dependent murine model. We noted that TLR-3 on Kupffer cells activated by pretreatment with poly I:C might protect against bacterial toxin (LPS)-induced fulminant hepatitis by down-regulating TLR-4 function, while TLR-3 pre-activation of NK cells might reduce Con A-induced NKT cell-mediated fulminant hepatitis by blocking NKT cell recruitment to the liver. We also found that the oversensitivity to injury by immune stimulation in HBV (hepatitis B virus) transgenic mice (full HBV gene-tg or HBs-tg) correlated to the over-expression of Rea1, an NKG2D (natural killer cell group 2D) ligand of NK cells or CD1d, a ligand of TCR-V14 of NKT cells, on HBV⁺ hepatocytes, which leads to an innate immune response against hepatocytes and is critical in liver immune injury and regeneration.