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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Aug 1.
Published in final edited form as: Cytokine Growth Factor Rev. 2018 Feb 13;42:5–12. doi: 10.1016/j.cytogfr.2018.02.004

Figure 2. Similarities and differences between the development of innate and adaptive lymphoid system.

Figure 2

The development of innate lymphocytes and T cells shows certain similarities. At mature stage, CD4+ T cells and ILCs produce similar sets of effector cytokines, while CD8+ T cells and cNK cells exhibit cytotoxic activities. In the innate lymphoid system, the development of LTi cells is distinct from other ILCs and cNK cells though they all generated from an early innate lymphocyte progenitor (EILP). The non-LTi ILCs are generated from an PLZF-expressing common progenitor, ILCP, while LTi cells developed from their own progenitor which depends on the master transcription factor RORγt. At mature stage, while non-LTi ILCs show plasticity under certain circumstances similar to what have been observed in differentiated CD4+ T cells, LTi cells are relatively stable.