Eomes表达确定了经典自然杀伤细胞的早期骨髓前体，这一成果由美国芝加哥大学Albert Bendelac等研究小组经过不懈努力而取得。相关论文于2024年6月13日发表于国际顶尖学术期刊《自然—免疫学》杂志上。

利用单细胞RNA测序和流式细胞术，该课题组聚焦于含有自然杀伤细胞和1型先天淋巴样细胞前体的TCF7⁺细胞群体，并鉴定了表达转录因子Eomes的骨髓谱系阴性自然杀伤受体阴性细胞亚群，称为Eomes^hiNK^neg细胞。Eomes^hiNK^neg细胞转入Rag2^-/- Il2rg ^-/-/受体产生了能够预防转移性疾病的功能性自然杀伤细胞。

相比之下，PLZF⁺1型先天淋巴样细胞前体的转移产生了1型先天淋巴样细胞, 2型先天淋巴样细胞和3型先天淋巴样细胞的混合物，缺乏细胞毒性潜能。这些发现确定了Eomes^hiNK^neg细胞是经典自然杀伤细胞的骨髓前体，并证明自然杀伤和1型先天淋巴样细胞谱系在发育早期分化。

研究人员表示，自然杀伤（NK）细胞通过血液循环，对细胞内病原体和肿瘤发起细胞毒性和干扰素-γ（IFNγ）为主的反应。1型先天淋巴样细胞(ILC1s)也产生1型细胞因子，但存在于组织中，没有细胞毒性。这些差异是否反映了离散的谱系或一种共同细胞类型的不同状态尚不清楚。

附：英文原文

Title: Eomes expression identifies the early bone marrow precursor to classical NK cells

Author: Liang, Zhitao, Anderson, Hope D., Locher, Veronica, OLeary, Crystal, Riesenfeld, Samantha J., Jabri, Bana, McDonald, Benjamin D., Bendelac, Albert

Issue&Volume: 2024-06-13

Abstract: Natural killer (NK) cells traffic through the blood and mount cytolytic and interferon-γ (IFNγ)-focused responses to intracellular pathogens and tumors. Type 1 innate lymphoid cells (ILC1s) also produce type 1 cytokines but reside in tissues and are not cytotoxic. Whether these differences reflect discrete lineages or distinct states of a common cell type is not understood. Using single-cell RNA sequencing and flow cytometry, we focused on populations of TCF7+ cells that contained precursors for NK cells and ILC1s and identified a subset of bone marrow lineage-negative NK receptor-negative cells that expressed the transcription factor Eomes, termed EomeshiNKneg cells. Transfer of EomeshiNKneg cells into Rag2/Il2rg/ recipients generated functional NK cells capable of preventing metastatic disease. By contrast, transfer of PLZF+ ILC precursors generated a mixture of ILC1s, ILC2s and ILC3s that lacked cytotoxic potential. These findings identified EomeshiNKneg cells as the bone marrow precursor to classical NK cells and demonstrated that the NK and ILC1 lineages diverged early during development.

DOI: 10.1038/s41590-024-01861-6

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-024-01861-6