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Kupffer cell
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Kupffer cells are macrophages, that is, defense cells that eat what is left over and what should not be there. They live in the liver's sinusoids, the wide channels where blood is filtered inside the organ. And there are not just a few of them: 80 to 90 percent of all the macrophages in the human body are there.
That makes sense given where they are posted. The portal circulation is the blood that passes through the liver. They are stationed in the channel where that blood passes through the organ. Their job is to clear that blood of debris and foreign particles. Large material they swallow by phagocytosis, which is engulfing the whole particle; small material they take up by pinocytosis, which is drinking the fluid along with whatever is dissolved in it.
But they do not only clean. They also release inflammatory cytokines, signals that switch on inflammation, along with oxygen radicals and proteases, enzymes that break down proteins. Those same mediators are thought to contribute to liver injury.
In brief
Kupffer cells are macrophages that live in the liver's sinusoids and account for 80 to 90 percent of all the macrophages in the body.
Their main job is to clear debris and foreign particles from the portal circulation passing through the liver: they engulf large material by phagocytosis and small material by pinocytosis.
They are stationed in the channel where portal blood crosses the liver.
They also produce inflammatory cytokines, oxygen radicals and proteases, and those mediators are thought to contribute to liver injury.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingHistology, Kupffer Cell, StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
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