Question

Kupffer cells are found in
A) Liver
B) Kidney
C) Heart
D) Blood

Answer 1

The cells of Kupffer are phagocytic, i.e. able to ingest other cells and foreign particles. They also store hemosiderin so that it is available to produce haemoglobin, the red blood cell's oxygen-transporting portion.

Complete answer:
Kupffer cells are a specialised population of macrophages that reside in the liver, one of the stellate (star-shaped) cells in the linings of the sinusoids of the liver. Microbial products and other noxious substances which are delivered through the blood to the liver are eliminated.

Kupffer cells, the first immune cells in the liver, would first come into contact with gut bacteria, bacterial endotoxins and microbial debris transmitted to the liver from the gastrointestinal tract through the portal vein. This is why any improvement in the functions of Kupffer cells can be related to various liver diseases, such as alcoholic liver disease, viral hepatitis, intrahepatic cholestasis, steatohepatitis, liver activation or rejection during liver transplantation and liver fibrosis.

In the yolk sac, where they differentiate into foetal macrophages, their development begins. They move to the foetal liver once they reach the bloodstream, where they remain. There, their development into Kupffer cells is complete. There are mainly two kinds of hepatic macrophages: Kupffer cells, residing in the liver and originating from red bone marrow progenitor cells derived from the yolk sac, and also monocyte-derived macrophages, derived from bone marrow hematopoietic stem cells and carried to the liver through the blood circulation. Macrophages derived from monocytes are immunogenic macrophages that differentiate when they are affected by the microenvironment. Self-sustain the Kupffer cells.

Hence the correct answer is option (A) Liver.

Note: Karl Wilhelm von Kupffer first observed those cells in 1876. The scientist referred to them as "Sternzellen" (star cells or hepatic stellate cells), but wrongly assumed they were an integral part of the endothelium of the blood vessels of the liver and that they came from it.Tadeusz Browicz identified them, correctly, as macrophages in 1898, after several years of research.