摘要
Because of its unique blood supply, the liver maintains a special local immune tolerogenic microenvironment. Moreover, the liver can impart this immune tolerogenic effect on other organs, thus inducing systemic immune tolerance. The network of hepatic regulatory cells is an important mechanism underlying liver tolerance. Many types of liver-resident antigen-presenting cells （APCs） have immune regulatory function, and more importantly, they can also induce the differentiation of circulating immune cells into regulatory cells to further extend systemic tolerance. Thus, the liver can be seen as a type of ＇school,＇ where liver APCs function as ＇teachers＇ and circulating immune cells function as ＇students.＇
Because of its unique blood supply, the liver maintains a special local immune tolerogenic microenvironment. Moreover, the liver can impart this immune tolerogenic effect on other organs, thus inducing systemic immune tolerance. The network of hepatic regulatory cells is an important mechanism underlying liver tolerance. Many types of liver-resident antigen-presenting cells （APCs） have immune regulatory function, and more importantly, they can also induce the differentiation of circulating immune cells into regulatory cells to further extend systemic tolerance. Thus, the liver can be seen as a type of ＇school,＇ where liver APCs function as ＇teachers＇ and circulating immune cells function as ＇students.＇
基金
This work was supported by the National Basic Research Project （973 project） （No. 2013CB944902） and the Natural Science Foundation of China （Nos. 31021061 and 91029303）. We thank from Dr Fudong Shi from Tian Jing Medical University, China, for critically reading the manuscript and providing suggestions.
