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Innate lymphoid cell function in the context of adaptive immunity

Nature Immunology volume 17, pages 783–789 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) are a family of innate immune cells that have diverse functions during homeostasis and disease. Subsets of ILCs have phenotypes that mirror those of polarized helper T cell subsets in their expression of core transcription factors and effector cytokines. Given the similarities between these two classes of lymphocytes, it is important to understand which functions of ILCs are specialized and which are redundant with those of T cells. Here we discuss genetic mouse models that have been used to delineate the contributions of ILCs versus those of T cells and review the current understanding of the specialized in vivo functions of ILCs.

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Figure 1: ILCs, innate-like T cells and conventional T cells are functionally compartmentalized on the basis of tissue residency and activation pathways.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Robinette, M. Patnode, M. Cella and G. Oltz for critical reading of the manuscript, and J. O'Shea for discussion. Supported by the US National Institutes of Health (AI095542, DE021255 and DK103039; and T32 HL731737 for J.K.B.), the Kenneth Rainin Foundation and the Cancer Research Institute (J.K.B.).

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  1. Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

    Jennifer K Bando & Marco Colonna

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Correspondence to Marco Colonna.

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Bando, J., Colonna, M. Innate lymphoid cell function in the context of adaptive immunity. Nat Immunol 17, 783–789 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni.3484

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