Since Joseph Claude Recamier, a French physician, Metastasis to the liver is a common event in clinical oncology. Blood-borne tumor cells (TCs) arriving to the coined the term metastasis in 1829 in his treatise ''Reliver sinusoids run into a special vascular bed. The lining cherches du Cancer,'' the metastatic cascade has been of liver sinusoids is shared by Kupffer cells (KCs) and exhaustively studied. 1,2 Metastases originate from a seendothelial cells. KCs, liver-fixed macrophages, are relective population of cells within the great biological sponsible for detection and removal of ''non-self'' partiheterogeneity of the tumor. 3 They must invade the vascles. To investigate their role in arresting blood-borne cular wall to be dislodged into the circulation and sur-TCs and controlling tumor growth, we injected a syngevive in the blood stream until they arrest at the distant neic colon carcinoma cell line into a mesenteric vein of vascular bed of the target organ by adherence or metwo groups of rats; one group was without Kupffer cells chanical trapping. Then, they have to proliferate to iniand the other normal controls. We removed the liver of tiate a metastatic colony.
these animals at different time intervals and performed
Liver metastasis is a common event in cancer paimmunohistochemical analysis with monoclonal antitients. This is of particular relevance for neoplasias of bodies (MoAbs) against our tumor cell line, three macrophage subpopulations, natural killer cells, and B and T the gastrointestinal tract, because the liver is the first lymphocytes. Additionally, we showed in vitro spontanevascular bed to be encountered by blood-borne tumor ous cytotoxicity of KCs against our tumor cell line. Recells (TCs) through the portal system. 4 The lumen of sults suggest that KCs play a relevant role in arresting liver sinusoids differ from the ordinary capillaries in circulating TCs at the liver sinusoid, although it is limthat, besides endothelial cells, the stellate cells of von ited to a small number of malignant cells. They also seem Kupffer are lining the sinusoid wall. 5 Kupffer cells to play a major role in clearing neoplastic cells from the (KCs) represent one of the largest populations of the liver parenchyma, in controlling tumor growth in the mononuclear phagocyte system in the body. Their privery early stages of metastatic development, and in modmary function is to discriminate between ''self'' and ulating the host immune response to cancer cells. (HEPA-''non-self'' particles, playing a prominent role as anti-