Table 1.

Summary of Key Phenotypic Differences Between tNK-Cells, cNK-Cells and Other Thymic Entities. Although tNK-cells bear some functional and phenotypic similarities to cNK-cells and to other thymic entities such as NKT-, γδ T- and MAIT Cells, there are key differences that mark tNK-cells as distinct. The key markers that distinguish these subsets, based on literature cited and described in this review, are reported in this table.

Cell Type	Developmental Origin	Key Markers Shared with tNK-Cells	Key Markers Distinct from tNK-Cells
cNK-cells	Bone marrow	CD56 NK1.1 DX5 NKp46 NKG2D CD122	Lack of iCD3 Lack of rearranged TCR transcripts Lack of CD127
iNKT-cells	Thymus	CD56 CD3 (extracellular on iNKT-cells) NKG2D NKp46	Vα24Jα18
NKT-like cells	Thymus	CD56 CD3 (extracellular on NKT-like cells) NKG2D NKp46	TCR-α and TCR-β
γδ T-cells	Thymus	NK1.1 CD127 CD3 (extracellular on γδ T-cells) TCR-γ (extracellular on γδ T-cells)	TCR-γδ
MAIT cells	Thymus	CD3 (extracellular on MAIT cells) NKG2D NKp46	Vα7.2-Jα33 Vβ2 and Vβ13 chains