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Innate lymphocytes: pathogenesis and therapeutic targets of liver diseases and cancer

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Abstract

The liver is a lymphoid organ with unique immunological properties, particularly, its predominant innate immune system. The balance between immune tolerance and immune activity is critical to liver physiological functions and is responsible for the sensitivity of this organ to numerous diseases, including hepatotropic virus infection, alcoholic liver disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, autoimmune liver disease, and liver cancer, which are major health problems globally. In the past decade, with the discovery of liver-resident natural killer cells, the importance of innate lymphocytes with tissue residency has gradually become the focus of research. In this review, we address the current knowledge regarding hepatic innate lymphocytes with unique characteristics, including NK cells, ILC1/2/3s, NKT cells, γδ T cells, and MAIT cells, and their potential roles in liver homeostasis maintenance and the progression of liver diseases and cancer. A better understanding of the immunopathogenesis of hepatic innate lymphocytes will be helpful for proposing effective treatments for liver diseases and cancer.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 81788101, 91542000, and 81671554), the Ministry of Science & Technology of China (2017ZX10202203-002-001, 2017ZX10202203-009-002), and the National Key R&D Program of China (2019YFA0508503).

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  1. Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, the CAS Key Laboratory of Innate Immunity and Chronic Disease, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    Yongyan Chen & Zhigang Tian

  2. Institute of Immunology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    Yongyan Chen & Zhigang Tian

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  1. Yongyan Chen
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Y.C. prepared the manuscript, tables, and figures. Z.T. designed and provided guidance on the outline of this review and revised the manuscript.

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Chen, Y., Tian, Z. Innate lymphocytes: pathogenesis and therapeutic targets of liver diseases and cancer. Cell Mol Immunol 18, 57–72 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41423-020-00561-z

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