TCF-1 Upregulation Identifies Early Innate Lymphoid Progenitors in the Bone Marrow

Overview

Journal Nat Immunol

Date 2015 Aug 18

PMID 26280998

Citations 153

Authors

Qi Yang

Fengyin Li

Christelle Harly

Shaojun Xing

Longyun Ye

Xuefeng Xia

Haikun Wang

Xinxin Wang

Shuyang Yu

Xinyuan Zhou

Maggie Cam

Hai-Hui Xue

Avinash Bhandoola

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The cellular and molecular events that drive the early development of innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) remain poorly understood. We show that the transcription factor TCF-1 is required for the efficient generation of all known adult ILC subsets and their precursors. Using novel reporter mice, we identified a new subset of early ILC progenitors (EILPs) expressing high amounts of TCF-1. EILPs lacked efficient T and B lymphocyte potential but efficiently gave rise to NK cells and all known adult helper ILC lineages, indicating that they are the earliest ILC-committed progenitors identified so far. Our results suggest that upregulation of TCF-1 expression denotes the earliest stage of ILC fate specification. The discovery of EILPs provides a basis for deciphering additional signals that specify ILC fate.

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