NKT cells in liver diseases

Abstract

Natural killer T cells are innate-like and tissue-resident lymphocytes, which recognize lipid antigens and are enriched in the liver. Natural killer T cells play important roles in infections, tumors, autoimmune diseases, and metabolic diseases. In this study, we summarize recent findings on biology of natural killer T cells and their roles in hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus infection, autoimmune liver diseases, alcoholic liver disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Controversial results from previous studies are discussed, and indicate the dynamic alteration in the role of natural killer T cells during the progression of liver diseases, which might be caused by changes in natural killer T subsets, factors skewing cytokine responses, and intercellular crosstalk between natural killer T cells and CD1d-expressing cells or bystander cells.

Keywords

natural killer T cells / hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus infection / autoimmune liver diseases / alcoholic liver disease / nonalcoholic fatty liver disease / hepatocellular carcinoma

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Acknowledgements

Work in the authors’ laboratory was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 91542203, 31470859, and 81771671), National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2017YFA0505300), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDA12030208), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Shasha Zhu, Huimin Zhang, and Li Bai declare no conflicts of interest. This manuscript is a review article and does not involve a research protocol requiring approval by the relevant institutional review board or ethics committee.

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