Tong Bainan, Wang Mingxuan, Liu Lu, Yang Xinyue
Department of Ophthalmology, The Second Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
Front Immunol. 2025 Aug 14;16:1648305. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1648305. eCollection 2025.
Human C-type lectin-like molecule CD161 is a type II transmembrane protein expressed on the surface of various lymphocytes within both the innate and adaptive immune systems. CD161 serves as a marker for innate-like T cells and IL-17-producing cells. However, the meaning of these T cells expressing CD161 has not yet been fully determined. Is CD161 merely a phenotypic marker used to identify T cells that are in a common state of activation and/or lineage? Or does this C-type lectin itself have important effector functions? This article aims to explore the latest research progress on CD161-expressing T cells, particularly human αβTCR+T and γδTCR +T cells, and evaluate the importance of CD161 expression on immune function and human diseases through this research.
人类C型凝集素样分子CD161是一种II型跨膜蛋白，表达于固有免疫系统和适应性免疫系统中多种淋巴细胞的表面。CD161作为固有样T细胞和产生白细胞介素-17细胞的标志物。然而，这些表达CD161的T细胞的意义尚未完全明确。CD161仅仅是用于识别处于共同激活状态和/或谱系的T细胞的表型标志物吗？还是这种C型凝集素本身具有重要的效应功能？本文旨在探讨表达CD161的T细胞，特别是人类αβTCR+T细胞和γδTCR +T细胞的最新研究进展，并通过该研究评估CD161表达对免疫功能和人类疾病的重要性。
