Natural killer T cells and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease:Fat chews on the immune system

作     者：Michael Kremer Ian N Hines 

作者机构：Department of Surgery University of Heidelberg Heidelberg 69120 Germany Department of Medicine University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill CB 7525 United States 

出 版 物：《World Journal of Gastroenterology》 (世界胃肠病学杂志（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2008年第14卷第3期

页      面：487-488页

核心收录：

学科分类：1002[医学-临床医学] 100201[医学-内科学(含：心血管病、血液病、呼吸系病、消化系病、内分泌与代谢病、肾病、风湿病、传染病)] 10[医学] 

主　　题：Obesity Hepatosteatosis Metabolic syndrome TNFalpha Interleukin 12 

摘      要：Natural killer T cells (NKT) are an important subset of T lymphocytes. They are unique in their ability to produce both T helper 1 and T helper 2 associated cytokines, thus being capable of steering the immune system into either inflammation or tolerance. Disruption of NKT cell numbers or function results in severe deficits in immune surveillance against pathogens and tumor cells. Growing experimental evidence suggests that hepatosteatosis may reduce resident hepatic as well as peripheral NKT cells. Those models of hepatosteatosis and the change in NKT cell numbers are associated with a disruption of cytokine homeostasis, resulting in a more pronounced release of proinflammatory cytokines which renders the steatotic liver highly susceptible to secondary insults. In this letter to the editor, we focus on recently published data in the World Journal of Gastroenterology by Xu and colleagues demonstrating reduced peripheral NKT cells in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, compare those findings with ours and others in different animal models of hepatosteatosis, and hypothesize about the potential underlying mechanism.