Function in Alcoholic Liver Disease
Kupffer cell activation is responsible for early ethanol-induced liver injury, common in chronic alcoholics. Chronic alcoholism and liver injury deal with a two hit system. The second hit is characterized by an activation of the Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and CD14, receptors on the Kupffer cell that internalize endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide or LPS). This activates the transcription of pro-inflammatory cytokines (Tumor necrosis factor-alpha or TNFα) and production of superoxides (a pro-oxidant). TNFα will then enter the stellate cell in the liver, leading to collagen synthesis and fibrosis. Fibrosis will eventually cause cirrhosis, or loss of function of the liver.
Read more about this topic: Kupffer Cell
Famous quotes containing the words function, alcoholic, liver and/or disease:
“My function in life is not to be a politician in Parliament: it is to get something done.”
—Bernadette Devlin (b. 1947)
“An alcoholic has been lightly defined as a man who drinks more than his own doctor.”
—Alvan L. Barach (1895–1977)
“Some women marry houses.
It’s another kind of skin; it has a heart,
a mouth, a liver and bowel movements.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Is not disease the rule of existence? There is not a lily pad floating on the river but has been riddled by insects. Almost every shrub and tree has its gall, oftentimes esteemed its chief ornament and hardly to be distinguished from the fruit. If misery loves company, misery has company enough. Now, at midsummer, find me a perfect leaf or fruit.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)