Systemic human ILC precursors provide a substrate for tissue ILC differentiation
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ABSTRACT: Innate lymphoid cells (ILC) represent innate versions of T helper and cytotoxic T cells that differentiate from committed ILC precursors (ILCP). Still, how ILCP relate to mature tissue-resident ILCs remains unclear. We observed that a population of CD117+ ILC from peripheral blood (PB) of healthy donors does not represent any conical ILC subset, but expressed marker (CD117) commonly expressed by hemato-lymphoid progenitors. We therefore hypothesized PB CD117+ ILC might include uncommitted lymphoid precursors. In order to further understand the identity of PB CD117+ ILC, we profiled the transcriptome of highly purified circulating CD117+ ILC compared to CD34+ HSC, the latter representing immature hematopoietic progenitors with multi-lineage potential. Clear differences in gene expression profiles emerged, with a large cluster of 1540 genes expressed at substantially higher levels in CD117+ ILC. In contrast, CD34+ HSC cells highly expressed genes involved in the broad development of diverse hematopoietic lineages. Compared to HSC, CD117+ ILC express high levels of TF that have been shown to be essential for murine ILC development and we did not detect transcripts characteristic of T and B cells development. Transcriptomic analysis suggested that CD117+ ILC represent lymphoid-biased progenitors carrying a TF expression profile resembling a multi-potent ILC precursor (ILCP).
ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens
PROVIDER: GSE90834 | GEO | 2017/03/19
SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA356077
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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