Kupffer cells inhibit the lymphoproliferative response to antigenic stimulation by rat hepatocytes.

Sprague-Dawley rats were immunized with liver-specific protein. Kupffer cells and hepatocytes were prepared by the enzyme digestive procedure, and macrophage-depleted lymphocytes were prepared by the glass adherence method. Lymphocytes were incubated with macrophages or with Kupffer cells during the antigenic stimulation of mitomycin-C-treated hepatocytes for 90 h, and 3H-thymidine incorporation of lymphocytes was analyzed. The proliferation of lymphocytes cultured with macrophages was increased, but the proliferation of lymphocytes cultured with Kupffer cells was decreased in the rats immunized with liver-specific protein. And cytotoxicity to hepatocytes was increased after lymphocyte-Kupffer cell culture in the immunized rats. On the other hand, the proliferation of lymphocytes and cytotoxicity to hepatocytes were not significantly increased in normal rats. In the immunized rats lymphocytes cultured with macrophages showed a proliferative response to the membrane of hepatocytes, but inhibition of the lymphoproliferative response by Kupffer cells is considered to be due to destruction of hepatocytes (and thereby removal of antigen).