The liver is a lymphoid organ with unique immunological properties, particularly, its predominant innate immune system. The balance between immune tolerance and immune activity is critical to liver physiological functions and is responsible for the sensitivity of this organ to numerous diseases, including hepatotropic virus infection, alcoholic liver disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, autoimmune liver disease, and liver cancer, which are major health problems globally. In the past decade, with the discovery of liver-resident natural killer cells, the importance of innate lymphocytes with tissue residency has gradually become the focus of research. In this review, we address the current knowledge regarding hepatic innate lymphocytes with unique characteristics, including NK cells, ILC1/2/3s, NKT cells, γδ T cells, and MAIT cells, and their potential roles in liver homeostasis maintenance and the progression of liver diseases and cancer. A better understanding of the immunopathogenesis of hepatic innate lymphocytes will be helpful for proposing effective treatments for liver diseases and cancer.

肝脏是一种淋巴器官，具有独特的免疫学特性，尤其是其主要的先天免疫系统。免疫耐受和免疫活性之间的平衡对肝脏生理功能至关重要，是该器官对多种疾病的敏感性的原因，包括嗜肝病毒感染、酒精性肝病、非酒精性脂肪性肝病、自身免疫性肝病和肝癌。是全球主要的健康问题。近十年来，随着肝脏驻留自然杀伤细胞的发现，具有组织驻留功能的先天淋巴细胞的重要性逐渐成为研究的重点。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了目前关于具有独特特征的肝先天淋巴细胞的知识，包括 NK 细胞、ILC1/2/3s、NKT 细胞、γδ T 细胞和 MAIT 细胞，及其在肝脏稳态维持和肝脏疾病和癌症进展中的潜在作用。更好地了解肝脏先天淋巴细胞的免疫发病机制将有助于提出有效的肝脏疾病和癌症治疗方法。