TABLE 2.

Factors contributing to the remarkably effective blood clearance activity of LSECs.

Factors concerning the LSECs proper:

• Expression of dedicated waste clearing receptors with high receptor ligand affinity

• Extremely fast shuttling (recycling) time of clearance receptors between the cell surface and the early endosomal compartment

• Well-developed apparatus for intracellular trafficking and degradation of endocytosed cargo

• Content of endocytic organelles higher than in most other cell types

Anatomical and physiological considerations:

• Strategically located for optimal possibility to survey the blood

• Large total surface facing the blood

• Slow sinusoidal blood flow that allows optimal chance for ligands to encounter clearance receptors