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The role of neutrophils in the development of liver diseases

Cellular & Molecular Immunology volume 11, pages 224–231 (2014)Cite this article

Abstract

Liver disease encompasses a wide variety of liver conditions, including liver failure, liver cirrhosis and a spectrum of acute and chronic hepatitis, such as alcoholic, fatty, drug, viral and chronic hepatitis. Liver injury is a primary causative factor in liver disease; generally, these factors include direct liver damage and immune-mediated liver injury. Neutrophils (also known as neutrophilic granulocytes or polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs)) are the most abundant circulating white blood cell type in humans, and PMNs are a major innate immune cell subset. Inappropriate activation and homing of neutrophils to the microvasculature contributes to the pathological manifestations of many types of liver disease. This review summarizes novel concepts of neutrophil-mediated liver injury that are based on current clinical and animal model studies.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the National Grand Program on Key Infectious Disease (No. 2012ZX10002-007-002) and the National Science Fund for Outstanding Young Scholars (No. 81222024).

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  1. Ruonan Xu and Huihuang Huang: These authors contributed equally to this study.

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  1. The Institute of Translational Hepatology, Research Center for Biological Therapy, Beijing 302 Hospital, Beijing, China

    Ruonan Xu, Zheng Zhang & Fu-Sheng Wang

  2. The Institute of Intensive Care Unit, Beijing 302 Hospital, Beijing, China

    Huihuang Huang

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Xu, R., Huang, H., Zhang, Z. et al. The role of neutrophils in the development of liver diseases. Cell Mol Immunol 11, 224–231 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/cmi.2014.2

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