Cytokines regulate the antigen-presenting characteristics of human circulating and tissue-resident intestinal ILCs

ILCs and T helper cells have been shown to exert bi-directional regulation in mice. However, how crosstalk between ILCs and CD4(+) T cells influences immune function in humans is unknown. Here we show that human intestinal ILCs co-localize with T cells in healthy and colorectal cancer tissue and display elevated HLA-DR expression in tumor and tumor-adjacent areas. Although mostly lacking co-stimulatory molecules ex vivo, intestinal and peripheral blood (PB) ILCs acquire antigen-presenting characteristics triggered by inflammasome-associated cytokines IL-1 beta and IL-18. IL-1 beta drives the expression of HLA-DR and co-stimulatory molecules on PB ILCs in an NF-kappa B-dependent manner, priming them as efficient inducers of cytomegalovirus-specific memory CD4(+) T-cell responses. This effect is strongly inhibited by the anti-inflammatory cytokine TGF-beta. Our results suggest that circulating and tissue-resident ILCs have the intrinsic capacity to respond to the immediate cytokine milieu and regulate local CD4(+) T-cell responses, with potential implications for anti-tumor immunity and inflammation. Murine ILCs can modulate T cell responses in MHCII-dependent manner. Here the authors show that human ILCs process and present antigens and induce T-cell responses upon exposure to IL-1-family cytokines; along with the article by Lehmann et al, this work elucidates how cytokines set context specificity of ILC-T cell crosstalk by regulating ILC antigen presentation.