Protein abundance of the cytokine receptor γc controls the thymic generation of innate-like T cells.

Abstract

Innate-like T (iT) cells comprise a population of immunoregulatory T cells whose effector function is imposed during their development in the thymus to provide protective immunity prior to antigen encounter. The molecular mechanism that drives the generation of iT cells remains unclear. Here, we report that the cytokine receptor γc plays a previously unappreciated role for thymic iT cells by controlling their cellular abundance, lineage commitment, and subset differentiation. As such, γc overexpression on thymocytes dramatically altered iT cell generation in the thymus, as it skewed the subset composition of invariant NKT (iNKT) cells and promoted the generation of IFNγ-producing innate CD8 T cells. Mechanistically, we found that the γc-STAT6 axis drives the differentiation of IL-4-producing iNKT cells, which in turn induced the generation of innate CD8 T cells. Collectively, these results reveal a cytokine-driven circuity of thymic iT cell differentiation that is controlled by the abundance of γc proteins.