Differential activation of human ILC2s by IL-25 and IL-33. Homo sapiens

The epithelial cell derived cytokines IL-25 and IL-33 can both activate type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s). It is not known whether the actions of these cytokines on ILC2s are similar or divergent. To investigate this we performed in vitro culture of human ILC2s with a variety of cytokine combinations including IL-2, IL-7, IL-25 and IL-33. Transcriptome profiling of these different condtions allowed us to assess the impact on gene expression of the different treatments. The results show that IL-25 and IL-33 promote divergent gene expression programs indicating that differential expression of these cytokines can cause diverse ILC2 effector function. Overall design: Human ILC2s were cultured for 7 days in the presence of 6 different cytokine combinations. Three biological replicates.