自然杀伤细胞与肝纤维化

 肝淋巴细胞中含有丰富的自然杀伤细胞（natural killer cells，NK），后者通过影响天然免疫抵御肝内病毒感染及肿瘤转移。而活化的肝星状细胞（hepatic stellate cells，HSCs）在肝纤维化发生发展中起着关键作用。近来一些研究表明NK细胞可通过产生具有抗纤维化作用的IFN-γ以及直接杀死活化HSCs，起到明显的抗肝纤维化作用。因此，刺激NK细胞活化极可能成为治疗肝纤维化的新途径，但其有效性及安全性需进一步通过临床研究来证明。

Natural killer cell and liver fibrosis

Liver lymphocytes are rich in natural killer (NK) cells, which are involved in innate immune defenses againest viral infection and tumor transformation in the liver. Activated hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) are primarily responsible for the development and progression of liver fibrosis. Recently some researches have shown that NK cells are an important factor in attenuating liver fibrosis through the production of antifibrotic IFN-γ and directly killing activated HSCs. So stimulating NK activity could potentially be a novel strategy to anti-liver fibrosis. But the efficency and safety still need the rigorous clinical studies to confirm.