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This is a very interesting study that raises many issues in liver immunobiology and tissue repair. First and foremost is the possible role of NK-like T cells in liver regeneration. This lymphocyte
subset is rare in most tissues, but unusually abundant both in bone marrow and in the liver.1,2 These cells are present in both mice and humans, and their common properties include the coexpression of a
TCR and NK-like markers (NK-1.1 in mice and CD56 and CD57 in humans), an extremely limited TCR repertoire in which the TCR alpha chains are essentially monomorphic (V alpha 14, J alpha 281 in mice; V
alpha 24, J alpha Q in humans), and the recognition of glycolipid antigens presented by CD1 molecules.3,4 CD1 molecules are expressed on hematopoietic cells, on intestinal epithelium, and on
hepatocytes,5,6 which may explain the prevalence of NK-T cells in the bone marrow and liver. Their effector functions include the secretion of diverse cytokines, including interferon gamma and
interleukin 4, and cytotoxicity delivered both through the perforin pathway and through cell surface Fas ligand (FasL).7-9
The observation that adrenergic receptor blockers inhibit the
accumulation of NK-T cells in the regenerating liver suggests that these cells are activated as part of a "stress response." The limited diversity of their TCR and its specificity for
glycolipids presented by CD1 suggest that these ligands may be "damage signals" that recruit the cells, whatever the mechanism of tissue injury might be. This property may be shared with
several subsets of gamma-delta T cells, which also express antigen receptors of limited diversity. In the skin, dendritic epidermal T cells are gamma-delta cells expressing a V gamma 3, V delta 1
receptor with no junctional diversity.10 These cells respond to an antigen expressed on keratinocytes11 and are believed to be involved in the detection of skin damage and in repair.12 Similarly,
intestinal gamma-delta cells do not appear to be actively involved in the defensive immune response to the bacterial pathogen Eimeria vermiformis, but are important in limiting tissue damage.13 In a
different infection of a different organ, gamma delta cells appear to limit tissue damage due to the granulomatous response to Mycobacteria tuberculosis infection of the lung14 and also damage caused by
ozone toxicity.15 Thus, several populations of unconventional "natural" T lymphocytes have documented roles in the maintenance of tissue integrity. This creates a precedent for the involvement
of NK-T cells in liver regeneration.
The expression of adrenergic receptors on lymphocytes is an old story (see, for example,Galant et al.16), but the biological significance of such expression
is not understood. From the report by Minagawa et al., it is not clear whether the alpha and beta blockers are acting on local neurotransmitters released from sympathetic neurons in the liver itself, or
on systemic stress hormones such as noradrenaline. Both alpha and beta adrenergic receptors appear to suppress the activation of conventional T cells,17,18 although Minagawa et al. argue that adrenergic
signals promote the recruitment of natural T cells. These two cell types may therefore be reciprocally regulated. In support of this position, other evidence suggest that intrahepatic natural T cells are
promoted by estrogen in contrast to thymocytes, which respond to estrogen with apoptosis.19
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