Importance of NK cells and intrahepatic immune responses for the acceleration of hepatitis C after liver transplantation

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The activating receptor natural killer group 2, member D(NKG2D) and its ligands play a crucial role in immune response to infections and tumors. Among the human NKG2D ligands, ULBP1 is prevalently expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC), but loss of its expression correlates with tumor progression and early recurrence. Although we could not find any significant changes in the gene expression profiles among the recurrent hepatitis C patients and chronic hepatitis C patients yet, our results suggest that the status of intrahepatic NK cell subsets and NK cell receptor ligand expressions might be associated with the rapid progression of recurrent hepatitis C infection.