Characterisation of innate lymphoid cell subsets infiltrating colorectal carcinoma
Paolo Carrega, Paola Orecchia, Linda Quatrini, Nicola Tumino, Roberta Venè, Roberto Benelli, Alessandro Poggi, Stefano Scabini, Maria Cristina Mingari, Lorenzo Moretta, Paola Vacca
Abstract
We read with great interest the paper by de Vries et al 1 which provides an interesting and unbiased characterisation of the immune contexture of colorectal cancer (CRC), the third most common cancer worldwide. 2 By mass cytometric analysis together with single cell RNA sequencing, the authors identified several clusters of immune cells infiltrating CRC. They show that natural killer (NK) cells (identified as CD127 -CD56 + CD45RO + ) are the prevalent innate lymphoid cell (ILC) population. NK cells are cytotoxic cells and can be distinguished from the non-cytotoxic CD127 + 'helper' ILC subsets (hILCs), which are specialised in the secretion of different sets of cytokines. Because of the low numbers of CD127 + hILCs, the authors did not characterise further hILC subsets. However, given their capacity to rapidly respond to environmental signals