Immune surveillance of the liver by T cells

Abstract

The liver is the target of several infectious, inflammatory, and neoplastic diseases, which affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide and cause an estimated death toll of more than 2 million people each year. Dysregulation of T cell responses has been implicated in the pathogenesis of these diseases; hence, it is critically important to understand the function and fate of T cells in the liver. Here, we provide an overview of the current knowledge on liver immune surveillance by conventional and invariant T cells and explore the complex cross-talk between immune cell subsets that determines the balance between hepatic immunity and tolerance.