Previous studies have shown that large doses of diethyldithiocarbamate (DDC) cause liver injury in rats and the pathogenesis of this injury involves, in part, release of superoxide anion by Kupffer cells. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if DDC was able to stimulate other potentially toxic mediators such as nitric oxide (NO) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) using isolated ra...

Activation of Kupffer cells by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) plays a pivotal role in the onset of pathophysiological events that occur during endotoxemia and intracellular calcium ([Ca2+]i) is involved in LPS-stimulated cytokine production. Recently, it was shown that Kupffer cells contain a glycine-gated chloride channel. Because taurine, a ubiquitous sulfur-containing beta-amino acid, acts similar...

In vivo, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is removed from the circulation by the liver Kupffer cells. Immunologically identifiable CEA is transferred from these macrophages to the hepatocytes, where degradation is completed. Circulatory clearance of CEA is specific, rapid [t1/2 = 3.7 +/- 0.9 (S.D.) min], and saturable. In vitro, Kupffer cells take up CEA by a saturable process which is time/tempe...

Most bacteria that enter the bloodstream are taken up by the liver. Previously, we reported that such organisms are initially bound extracellularly and subsequently killed by immigrating neutrophils, not Kupffer cells as widely presumed in the literature. Rather, the principal functions of Kupffer cells demonstrated herein are to clear bacteria from the peripheral blood and to promote accumulat...

Introduction During hepatic metastasis, tumor cells are exposed to the sinusoidal environment, involving endothelial cells, Kupffer cells, pit cells (NK cells) and fat-storing cells [1]. It is known that Kupffer cells and pit cells play a direct role in killing metastasizing colon carcinoma cells [1,2]. Only few studies describe the interactions of Kupffer cells and tumor cells within the first...

To characterize the antimicrobial activities of Kupffer cells, I harvested macrophages from livers with a technique involving perfusion with collagenase and DNase. Ninety-nine percent of glass-adherent cells had typical macrophage morphology, 99% were esterase positive, and 60% phagocytosed opsonized zymosan when challenged with four particles per macrophage. Toxoplasma gondii multiplied within...

Rat transferrin or asialotransferrin doubly radiolabelled with 59Fe and 125I was injected into rats. A determination of extrahepatic and hepatic uptake indicated that asialotransferrin delivers a higher fraction of the injected 59Fe to the liver than does transferrin. In order to determine in vivo the intrahepatic recognition sites for transferrin and asialotransferrin, the liver was subfractio...

Kupffer cells represent the first line of defense against tumor cells in the liver. Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) have recently been observed in the liver parenchyma of tumor-bearing animals. The present study investigates the function of the MDSC subsets, and their impact on Kupffer cell phenotype and function. RIL-175 mouse hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells were injected into the...

Background and aims: Activation of Kupffer cells recruitment monocytes are key events in fibrogenesis. These release soluble mediators which induce the activation hepatic stellate (HSC), main fibrogenic cell type within liver. Mer tyrosine kinase (MerTK) signaling regulates multiple processes macrophages has been implicated pathogenesis NASH-related fibrosis. In this study, we explored if MerTK...

The characteristics of the recognition system involved in the binding of galactose-exposing particles to freshly isolated rat Kupffer cells were determined. For this purpose we used iodinated lactosylated low-density lipoprotein (125I-Lac-LDL) as a ligand for the galactose receptor on Kupffer cells. The affinity of the binding of 125I-Lac-LDL to Kupffer cells was saturable (23,500 galactose-spe...