• To examine the effect of a single hepatic focus of metastatic colon tumor on the immune function of liver nonparenchymal cells (NPCs) from C57Bl/6 mice, we injected 2.5×105 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 γ/δ+ 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.
(Arch Surg. 1992;127:1325-1329)