Fig. 1.

Liver CD4⁺ T cells and their role in NASH and AIH. Naïve CD4⁺ T cells can be primed directly in the liver by different types of antigen-presenting cells (APC) and then mature into effector T cells with different polarization states, namely T_H1, T_H2, and T_H17. The cytokine profile of the effector cells has been associated with the development of NASH and AIH. Effector T cells can form effector memory (T_EM) and central memory T (T_CM) cells, and their cytokine profile has also been associated with the development of NASH. In AIH, the frequency of memory T_REG cells was found to be not significantly different between AIH patients and healthy subjects. Finally, it has been proposed that Foxp3⁺ T_REG cells can undergo apoptosis in the inflamed liver and thus, probably, unleash the pathogenic activity of the effector T cells