The biliary epithelium presents antigens to and activates natural killer T cells

Abstract

Cholangiocytes express CD1d and present antigens to NKT cells and CD1d expression is down-regulated in diseased biliary epithelium, findings which show that the biliary epithelium can activate an important lymphocyte subset of the liver. This is a potentially important immune pathway in the biliary system, which may be capable of regulating inflammation in the context of biliary disease.