Abstract
Nature killer (NK) cells are important lymphocytes of the innate immune system, well known for their pivotal roles in immune surveillance and defense against tumor and virus-infected cells. Current studies have revealed that NK cells are not a homogeneous population, but instead consist of distinct subsets with diverse characteristics. As an organ with predominant innate immunity, the liver is enriched with NK cells, among which two distinct NK cell subsets have recently been identified: conventional NK (cNK) cells and tissue-resident NK (trNK) cells. Liver trNK cells are markedly different from cNK cells in many aspects, representing a new lineage of innate lymphoid cell (ILC) family. Here, we summarize the phenotypic and functional features of liver trNK cells, and review current knowledge regarding developmental pathway of liver trNK cells. We also overview recent advances in human liver trNK cells and discuss the striking shared hallmarks of trNK cells in different tissues.
Highlights
Natural killer (NK) cells are the prototype member of innate lymphoid cell (ILC) family (Spits and Di Santo, 2011)
We and others have showed that mouse liver NK cells can be divided into two distinct subsets based on CD49a and DX5 expression: One subset characterized as CD49a−DX5+ is conventional NK (cNK) cells as it resembles splenic NK cells and circulates in the blood (Peng et al, 2013; Sojka et al, 2014a)
A subset of progenitors marked by PLZF expression represents a more restricted-development potential compared to CHILPs, since it could develop into liver tissue-resident NK (trNK) cells, ILC2s, ILC3s, but not cNK and LTi cells (Constantinides et al, 2014)
Summary
Received October 31, 2016; accepted November 15, 2016; published online November 30, 2016. Current studies have revealed that NK cells are not a homogeneous population, but instead consist of distinct subsets with diverse characteristics. As an organ with predominant innate immunity, the liver is enriched with NK cells, among which two distinct NK cell subsets have recently been identified: conventional NK (cNK) cells and tissue-resident NK (trNK) cells. Liver trNK cells are markedly different from cNK cells in many aspects, representing a new lineage of innate lymphoid cell (ILC) family. We summarize the phenotypic and functional features of liver trNK cells, and review current knowledge regarding developmental pathway of liver trNK cells. We overview recent advances in human liver trNK cells and discuss the striking shared hallmarks of trNK cells in different tissues
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