CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China.
Anhui Provincial Laboratory of Inflammatory and Immunity Disease, School of Pharmacy, Anhui Institute of Innovative Drugs, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
Front Immunol. 2020 Aug 11;11:1945. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.01945. eCollection 2020.
Natural killer (NK) cells are innate lymphocytes specialized in immune surveillance against tumors and infections. To reach their optimal functional status, NK cells must undergo a process of maturation from immature to mature NK cells. Genetically modified mice, as well as and NK cell differentiation assays, have begun to reveal the landscape of the regulatory network involved in NK cell maturation, in which a balance of cytokine signaling pathways leads to an optimal coordination of transcription factor activity. An increased understanding of NK cell maturation will greatly promote the development and application of NK cell-based clinical therapy. Thus, in this review, we summarize the dynamics of NK cell maturation, describe recently identified factors involved in the regulation of the NK cell maturation process, including cytokines and transcription factors, and discuss the importance of NK cell maturation in health and disease.
自然杀伤 (NK) 细胞是先天淋巴细胞，专门用于针对肿瘤和感染的免疫监视。为了达到最佳的功能状态，NK 细胞必须经历从未成熟到成熟 NK 细胞的成熟过程。基因修饰小鼠以及 NK 细胞分化测定已经开始揭示参与 NK 细胞成熟的调控网络的全貌，其中细胞因子信号通路的平衡导致转录因子活性的最佳协调。对 NK 细胞成熟的深入了解将极大地促进基于 NK 细胞的临床治疗的发展和应用。因此，在这篇综述中，我们总结了 NK 细胞成熟的动态，描述了最近发现的参与 NK 细胞成熟过程调控的因素，包括细胞因子和转录因子，并讨论了 NK 细胞成熟在健康和疾病中的重要性。
