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World J Gastroenterol. May 28, 2020; 26(20): 2559-2569
Published online May 28, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i20.2559
Role of γδT cells in liver diseases and its relationship with intestinal microbiota
Qi-Hui Zhou, Feng-Tian Wu, Lan-Tian Pang, Tian-Bao Zhang, Zhi Chen
Qi-Hui Zhou, Feng-Tian Wu, Lan-Tian Pang, Tian-Bao Zhang, Zhi Chen, Department of Infectious Diseases, State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, the First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310000, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Zhou QH wrote the manuscript; Wu FT, Pang LT and Zhang TB collected the data; Chen Z proofread the manuscript.
Supported by the National Science and Technology Major Project of China, No. 2018ZX10302206 and No. 2017ZX10202203-007-010.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest associated with the contributions of the senior author or other coauthors to this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Zhi Chen, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Infectious Diseases, State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, the First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, No. 79 Qingchun Road, Shangcheng District, Hangzhou 310000, Zhejiang Province, China. zjuchenzhi@zju.edu.cn
Received: February 10, 2020
Peer-review started: February 10, 2020
First decision: April 12, 2020
Revised: April 19, 2020
Accepted: April 29, 2020
Article in press: April 29, 2020
Published online: May 28, 2020
Abstract

γδT cells are unconventional T lymphocytes that bridge innate and adaptive immunity. Based on the composition of T cell receptor and the cytokines produced, γδT cells can be divided into diverse subsets that may be present at different locations, including the liver, epithelial layer of the gut, the dermis and so on. Many of these cells perform specific functions in liver diseases, such as viral hepatitis, autoimmune liver diseases, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, liver cirrhosis and liver cancers. In this review, we discuss the distribution, subsets, functions of γδT cells and the relationship between the microbiota and γδT cells in common hepatic diseases. As γδT cells have been used to cure hematological and solid tumors, we are interested in γδT cell-based immunotherapies to treat liver diseases.

Keywords: γδT cells, Liver diseases, Viral hepatitis, Autoimmune liver disease, Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, Liver cirrhosis, Liver cancer, Intestinal microbiota

Core tip: γδT cells are unconventional T lymphocytes that bridge innate and adaptive immunity. These cells are enriched in epithelial layers of different tissues and the peripheral blood. They have been used in hematological and solid tumors for immunotherapies. The effects of γδT cells in liver diseases depend on subsets, mechanisms and different stages of diseases. We herein discuss the distribution, subsets, functions of γδT cells and the relationship between the microbiota and γδT cells in common hepatic diseases.