Journal roundup

Abstract

Often described as the innate counterparts of T cells due to their transcription factor and cytokine profiles, innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) participate in tissue homeostasis and inflammation by quickly responding to epithelialand myeloid-derived signals. Similar to what has been described for T cells, ILCs are inherently plastic, being able to adapt their cytokine production profile to the tissue microenvironment. In this issue, Hochdörfer et al. show that human ILC2-ILC3 plasticity is determined by expression of c-Kit. While c-Kit expressing ILC2 are prone to ILC3-plasticity marked by IL-17 production, ILC2 lacking cKit predominantly produce type 2 cytokines, possibly representing more committed ILC2. These data emphasize that ILC2 are interesting targets for therapy, as they may be involved not only in type 2 responses but also in the mixed type 2/3 responses observed in subsets of patients with allergy and asthma.