ABSTRACT
Huge progress has been made in understanding the biology of innate lymphoid cells (ILC) by adopting several well-known concepts in T cell biology. As such, flow cytometry gating strategies and markers, such as CD90, to identify ILC have been applied. Here, we report that most non-NK intestinal ILC have a high expression of CD90 as expected, but surprisingly a sub-population of cells exhibit low or even no expression of this marker. CD90-negative and CD90-low CD127+ ILC were present amongst all ILC subsets in the gut. The frequency of CD90-negative and CD90-low CD127+ ILC was dependent on stimulatory cues in vitro and enhanced due to dysbiosis in vivo. CD90-negative and CD90-low CD127+ ILC played a functional role as a source of IL-13, IFNγ and IL-17A at steady state and upon dysbiosis- and dextran sulphate sodium-elicited colitis. Hence, this study reveals that, contrary to expectations, CD90 is not constitutively expressed by functional ILC in the gut.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
Conflict of interest statement The authors have declared that no conflict of interest exists.
Financial support: This study was supported by grants awarded by the Wellcome Trust (091009), the Medical Research Council (MR/M003493/1; MR/K002996/1, all to GML) and RCUK/UKRI Rutherford Fund fellowship (MR/R024812/1) to JFN. Research was also supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at Guy’s and St Thomas and King’s College London. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, or the Department of Health.
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