Abstract
Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) are emerging as important effectors of innate immunity and play a critical role in maintaining intestinal immune homeostasis. They are tissue-residing immune cells that can be subdivided based on master transcription factor and cytokine expression, bearing striking resemblance to their CD4+ T helper (Th) cell counterparts. ILCs are increasingly recognized as potential mediators of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) providing a need to explore their functional and phenotypic differences in health vs. disease. In this chapter we outline protocols for the characterization of human ILCs and intracellular cytokine expression using flow cytometry. We include protocols for isolating human peripheral blood and colonic lamina propria mononuclear cells essential for evaluating human IBD specimens.
Key words
- Innate lymphoid cell
- Inflammatory bowel disease
- Cell isolation
- Flow cytometry
- Gating
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Acknowledgments
Research enabling the optimization of this protocol was supported by the Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at Guy’s and St Thomas’ National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust and King’s College London.
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Omer, O.S., Powell, N., Lord, G.M. (2020). Characterizing Innate Lymphoid Cell Phenotype and Function in Human Inflammatory Bowel Disease. In: Amarnath, S. (eds) Innate Lymphoid Cells . Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2121. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0338-3_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0338-3_17
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