Hepatic metastasis alters the immune function of murine liver nonparenchymal cells

J. A. Johnkoski, S. P. Tzung, R. J. Doerr and S. A. Cohen
Department of Surgery, State University of New York, Buffalo.

To examine the effect of a single hepatic focus of metastatic colon tumor on the immune function of liver non-parenchymal cells (NPCs) from C57Bl/6 mice, we injected 2.5 x 10(5) liver-derived murine colon adenocarcinoma (LD-MCA-38) cells beneath the liver capsule. Three weeks following injection of the tumor cells, the immune function of the NPCs was studied. The NPCs from tumor-bearing mice exhibited increased cytotoxic and proliferative activity. The NPCs from tumor-bearing mice also contained a greater percentage of CD8+ and T-cell receptor gamma/delta+ liver-associated T lymphocytes. Levels of interleukin 6 and tumor necrosis factor were increased in the NPC supernatant, and interleukin 6 levels were increased in serum from tumor-bearing mice. We conclude that the presence of a single hepatic focus of metastatic tumor results in augmented immune function of murine liver NPCs.