Advances in innate lymphoid cells / 中国免疫学杂志

ABSTRACT

Natural killer (NK) cells have long been considered the only representative of lymphocyte lineages among the innate immune system ,but recent studies have revealed that several types of innate lymphoid cells ( ILC ) exist in both humans and mice.These newly identified ILC populations were mainly distributed at mucosal barriers ,regardless of their rarity ,they play important roles in the defense against pathogens and in the maintenance of tissue or organ homeostasis .In the early stages of ILC development ,a common ILC lineage-restricted progenitor exists and under the control of different transcription factors ,the progenitor can later give rise to different ILC subsets with distinct phenotypes and functions.Different ILC subsets exhibit distinct cytokine secretion profiles ,based on the categorization of helper T cell subsets , ILC family has been further classified into three groups.The finding of diverse ILC extremely enriches the content of innate immunity ,and also provides new insights into links between innate and adaptive immunity .