How your Liver and your Immunity are linked (Part 1)
Liver and Immunity
While the focus right now globally is immunity - understandably - we wanted to also highlight the amazing work your liver does and how it is also tied to keeping us well.
Our liver works constantly; it processes everything we eat, drink, breathe and put on our skin, and when we are sick it also helps with supporting our immune response.
A review -Immune Responses in the Liver (Kubes, P and Jenne, C- Annual Review of Immunology, 2018) highlights how our liver is in fact ‘key and frontline immune tissue’. It helps the body detect pathogens (pathogen =biological agent that causes disease or illness to its host) which enter the body.
Abstract from the review below: ..’the liver appears designed to detect, capture, and clear bacteria, viruses, and macromolecules. Containing the largest collection of phagocytic cells in the body, this organ is an important barrier between us and the outside world. Importantly, as portal blood also transports a large number of foreign but harmless molecules (e.g., food antigens), the liver's default immune status is anti-inflammatory or immunotolerant; however, under appropriate conditions, the liver is able to mount a rapid and robust immune response’
Here is the review for you to have a read:
Annual Review of Immunology 2018 36:1, 247-277
Stay tuned as we post a four part blog series of how your Liver and Immunity are linked.
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