1. IL13Rα2 expression identifies tissue-resident IL-22-producing PLZF+ innate T cells in the human liver
- Author
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Douglas F. Nixon, Niklas K. Björkström, Karolin Falconer, Soo Aleman, Espen Melum, Jay A. Berzofsky, Johan K. Sandberg, Masaki Terabe, Lise Pasquet, Benjamin C. Greenspun, Benedikt Strunz, and Dominic Paquin-Proulx
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Human liver ,Immunology ,Interleukin ,Inflammation ,Biology ,Natural killer T cell ,Phenotype ,Cell biology ,Interleukin 22 ,03 medical and health sciences ,030104 developmental biology ,0302 clinical medicine ,Promyelocytic leukaemia zinc finger ,medicine ,Immunology and Allergy ,medicine.symptom ,Function (biology) ,030215 immunology - Abstract
Innate lymphocytes are selectively enriched in the liver where they have important roles in liver immunology. Murine studies have shown that type I NKT cells can promote liver inflammation, whereas type II NKT cells have an anti-inflammatory role. In humans, type II NKT cells were found to accumulate in the gut during inflammation and IL13Rα2 was proposed as a marker for these cells. In the human liver, less is known about type I and II NKT cells. Here, we studied the phenotype and function of human liver T cells expressing IL13Rα2. We found that IL13Rα2 was expressed by around 1% of liver-resident memory T cells but not on circulating T cells. In support of their innate-like T-cell character, the IL13Rα2+ T cells had higher expression of promyelocytic leukaemia zinc finger (PLZF) compared to IL13Rα2- T cells and possessed the capacity to produce IL-22. However, only a minority of human liver sulfatide-reactive type II NKT cells expressed IL13Rα2. Collectively, these findings suggest that IL13Rα2 identifies tissue-resident intrahepatic T cells with innate characteristics and the capacity to produce IL-22.
- Published
- 2018
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