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Interleukin-22-producing innate immune cells: new players in mucosal immunity and tissue repair?

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 9, pages 229–234 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Mucosal tissues, lying at the interface with the external environment, are constantly challenged by microbial, physical and chemical assaults. To provide the necessary immune defence to such challenges, lymph nodes and Peyer's patches are formed in utero in response to inductive signals from lymphoid-tissue inducer (LTi) cells. As discussed in this Progress article, a series of recent reports has identified a population of interleukin-22-producing mucosal cells in the gut and tonsils that share features with both LTi cells (by expressing RORγt) and natural killer cells (by expressing NKp46) and that might be involved in immunity and homeostasis in mucosal tissues.

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Figure 1: Anatomical localization of gut NK cells and RORγt+NKp46+ cells.
Figure 2: Working models for the developmental relationship between NK cells and LTi cells.

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Acknowledgements

The Vivier laboratory is supported by the Ligue Nationale contre le Cancer (Equipe labellisée La Ligue), the Agence Nationale de la Recherche, INSERM, CNRS and the Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche. T.C. is supported by an Innovative Research Incentives Scheme VENI grant from the Dutch organization for scientific research (NWO).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Eric Vivier is at the Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy, Université de la Méditerranée, INSERM, U631, and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR6102, 13288 Marseille, France, and at the Assistance Publique — Hôpitaux de Marseille, Hôpital de la Conception, 13005 Marseille, France.,

    Eric Vivier

  2. Hergen Spits is at Genentech, Inc., 1 DNA Way, South San Francisco, California 94080-4990, USA.,

    Hergen Spits

  3. Department of Hematology, Tom Cupedo is at the Erasmus University Medical Center, Room Ee133Of, PO Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, the Netherlands.,

    Tom Cupedo

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  1. Eric Vivier
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Correspondence to Eric Vivier, Hergen Spits or Tom Cupedo.

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Interleukin-22-producing innate immune cells: new players in mucosal immunity and tissue repair? Nature Reviews Immunology 9, 229–234 (2009); doi:10.1038/nri2522

Eric Vivier is a founder of and shareholder in Innate Pharma SA.

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Vivier, E., Spits, H. & Cupedo, T. Interleukin-22-producing innate immune cells: new players in mucosal immunity and tissue repair?. Nat Rev Immunol 9, 229–234 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nri2522

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