Laboratory of Department of Hematology, Yishui Central Hospital of Linyi, Linyi, China.
J Immunol Res. 2018 Sep 4;2018:1206737. doi: 10.1155/2018/1206737. eCollection 2018.
Nature killer (NK) cells play a critical role in host innate and adaptive immune defense against viral infections and tumors. NK cells are enriched in liver hematopoietic cells with unique NK repertories and functions to safeguard liver cells against hepatitis virus infection or malignancy transformation. However, accumulating evidences were found that the NK cells were modulated by liver diseases and liver cancers including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and showed impaired functions failing to activate the elimination of the viral-infected cells or tumor cells and were further involved in the pathogenesis of liver injury and inflammation. The full characterization of circulation and intrahepatic NK cell phenotype and function in liver disease and liver cancer has not only provided new insight into the disease pathogenesis but has also discovered new targets for developing new NK cell-based therapeutic strategies. This review will discuss and summarize the NK cell phenotypic and functional changes in liver disease and HCC, and the NK cell-based immunotherapy approaches and progresses for cancers including HCC will also be reviewed.
自然杀伤 (NK) 细胞在宿主先天和适应性免疫防御病毒感染和肿瘤方面发挥着关键作用。NK 细胞富含具有独特 NK repertoire 和功能的肝脏造血细胞，可保护肝细胞免受肝炎病毒感染或恶性转化。然而，越来越多的证据表明，NK 细胞被肝脏疾病和肝癌（包括肝细胞癌 (HCC)）所调节，其功能受损，无法激活清除受病毒感染的细胞或肿瘤细胞，并且进一步参与肝脏损伤和炎症的发病机制。对肝脏疾病和肝癌中循环和肝内 NK 细胞表型和功能的全面描述不仅为疾病发病机制提供了新的见解，而且还为开发基于 NK 细胞的新治疗策略发现了新的靶点。本综述将讨论和总结肝脏疾病和 HCC 中 NK 细胞的表型和功能变化，以及基于 NK 细胞的免疫治疗方法在 HCC 等癌症中的进展。
