The liver receives blood from both the systemic circulation and the intestine, and in
distinctive, thin-walled sinusoids this mixture passes over a large macrophage population,
termed Kupffer cells. The exposure of liver cells to antigens, and to microbial products
derived from the intestinal bacteria, has resulted in a distinctive local immune environment.
Innate lymphocytes, including both natural killer cells and natural killer T cells, are unusually
abundant in the liver. Multiple populations of nonhematopoietic liver cells, including …