Frontiers in Immunology (Apr 2023)

CD90 is not constitutively expressed in functional innate lymphoid cells

  • Jan-Hendrik Schroeder,
  • Gordon Beattie,
  • Gordon Beattie,
  • Jonathan W. Lo,
  • Jonathan W. Lo,
  • Tomasz Zabinski,
  • Nick Powell,
  • Joana F. Neves,
  • Richard G. Jenner,
  • Graham M. Lord,
  • Graham M. Lord

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1113735
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14

Abstract

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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, have been applied to indentify ILC. 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 by dysbiosis in vivo. CD90-negative and CD90-low CD127+ ILC were a potential 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.

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