Plastic fantastic innate lymphoid cells

Abstract

In this issue of JEM, Nagasawa et al. (https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.20190490) have undertaken a detailed study of the cell surface phenotype, transcriptional profile, and cytokine secretion of ILC progenitor populations in human peripheral blood and tissues and describe markers that highlight the heterogeneity of these chameleons.

Single-cell analysis reveals innate lymphoid cell lineage infidelity in atopic dermatitis

“…It therefore appears that there are no fixed borders between the individual ILC subsets and that cutaneous ILCs represent an immunologically flexible cell population. [42][43][44] Behavior of ILCs in cultures: Evidence for molecular metamorphosis…”

An expanded universe of cancer targets

“…Additionally, ligands for NK cell activating receptors are often upregulated on tumor cells or during infection (Miller and Lanier, 2019), and the loss of these ligands reduces NK cell recognition and killing. Notably, the NK cell activating ligands MHC class I polypeptide-related sequence A/B (MICA/B) are often downregulated by diverse tumors including leukemia; prostate cancer; melanoma; and breast, lung, ovarian, and colon carcinomas, leading to decreased engagement of the NK cell activating receptor NKG2D and decreased anti-tumor activity (Lanier, 2019). Additionally, NKG2D ligands can be secreted by tumor cells, leading to impaired NK cell function (Ashiru et al, 2010;Clayton et al, 2008;Hedlund et al, 2011;Lundholm et al, 2014).…”

ILC2 the Rescue?

“…ILC2s comprise one subset of the five major groups of ILC, which also include natural killer (NK) cells, lymphoid tissue inducer cells, ILC1s, and ILC3s (2). These subsets are defined by the transcription factors that regulate their differentiation and the cytokines that they secrete.…”