The liver contains a rich mix of T cells, including activated T cells, tissue-resident memory T cells and cells undergoing apoptosis. When antigens are presented in this milieu the default result is functional tolerance. T cell tolerance in the liver could be constitutive, or it could be adaptive, in which case liver cells would become unresponsive after encountering antigen in the liver context. To test this model, we evaluated the potential of human liver T cells to respond to T cell receptor ligation in liver tissue slice cultures. These T cells contained an actively motile subset of CD4+ T cells marked by CCR7 and CD62L, and fully functional subsets of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells that synthesized effector cytokines but subsequently assumed an exhausted phenotype. These data favor the model that human liver T cells are not constitutively tolerant but undergo adaptive tolerance after activation.

肝脏含有丰富的T细胞混合物，包括活化T细胞，组织驻留记忆T细胞和经历凋亡的细胞。当抗原出现在该环境中时，默认结果是功能耐受。肝脏中的T细胞耐受性可以是组成性的，也可以是适应性的，在这种情况下，肝细胞在遇到肝抗原后会变得无反应。为了测试该模型，我们评估了人肝T细胞对肝组织切片培养物中T细胞受体连接反应的潜力。这些T细胞包含以CCR7和CD62L标记的CD4 + T细胞的活动子集，以及合成效应细胞因子但随后呈现疲惫表型的CD4 +和CD8 + T细胞的功能齐全的子集。