Figure 3
Normal tolerance and pathological tolerance in the liver. In health (shown in green) the microbiota causes steady-state low-level immune activation and the negative feedback that results in bias toward immune tolerance in the liver. Disturbance of the relationship between microbiota and host, which may be caused by diverse stresses including toxic diet elements, can cause enhanced inflammation that acts through the same mechanisms, but causes more profound immune incompetence. At the same time, the inflammation itself propagates liver injury.
