Development and differentiation of early innate lymphoid progenitors. Mus musculus

Early innate lymphoid progenitors (EILP) have recently been identified in the mouse adult bone marrow as a multipotential progenitor population committed to ILC lineages, but their relationship with other described ILC progenitors is still unclear. In this study, we examine the progenitor-successor relationships between EILP, IL-7R+ common lymphoid progenitors (ALP), and ILC precursors (ILCp). Bioinformatic, phenotypical, functional, and genetic approaches collectively establish EILP as an intermediate progenitor between ALP and ILCp. Our work additionally provides new candidate regulators of ILC development and clearly defines the stage of requirement of transcription factors key for early ILC development. Overall design: transcriptional profiling of early ILC progenitors (EILP, ILCp), and common lymphoid progenitors (ALP) was performed by RNA sequencing