The Role of Invariant Natural Killer T Cells in Autoimmune Diseases

From the Deep Sea to Everywhere: Environmental Antigens for iNKT Cells

“…Due to their cytokine production, iNKT cells can have a pronounced effect on the immune system, impacting a dazzling variety of different immune reactions. They are involved in a range of chronic and acute inflammatory processes including responses to pathogens (Kinjo and Kronenberg 2009) and tumors (O'Konek et al 2012), as well as in allergic (Berzins and Ritchie 2014;DeKruyff et al 2014) and autoimmune responses (Simoni et al 2013;Wingender and Kronenberg 2014).…”

NKT10 cells: a noveliNKT cell subset

“…Invariant Natural Killer T ( i NKT) cells are a unique subset of T cells that combine features of innate NK cells and of adaptive memory T cells [ 1 , 2 ]. This hybrid character of i NKT cells, combined with the fact that they express an invariant TCR α-chain, led to their naming.…”

“…As basically all human i NKT cells share the same invariant TCR and respond to the same CD1d/antigen complexes in a comparable fashion, their therapeutic potential is great. Therefore, it is not surprising that αGalCer and other i NKT cell antigens are under continuing development as therapeutic agents [ 1 , 2 ].…”

“…Although essentially all i NKT cells recognize αGalCer bound to CD1d via their invariant TCR, it became clear in recent years that i NKT cells are not uniform [ 1 , 2 ]. Based on preference in the production of particular cytokines and the expression of specific transcription factors, i NKT cells can be subdivided into subsets that are reminiscent to CD4 + T helper cell subsets.…”

“…These subsets develop naturally and can be detected in the thymus. Additional subsets were found to differentiate following antigenic exposure: T FH -like NKT FH cells and i NKT cells expressing FoxP3 [ 1 , 2 ].…”