Grant: Project Grant

Inhaled allergens stimulate a population of innate lymphocytes called ILC2. Stimulated ILC2s proliferate and produce factors called cytokines that drive allergic diseases of the lung including asthma. Unlike most other lymphocytes, ILC2s do not normally circulate throughout our body. Lung ILC2s are generated soon after birth and stay in the lung throughout life. We have recently found a population of immature lymphocytes, which are capable of becoming ILC2, in the lung of of very young mice, We have also found that some stimulated lung ILC2s circulate and eventually migrate to the liver. Now we plan to find out whether the immature lymphocyte population is the source of lung resident ILC2s and what lung-derived ILC2s in the liver do and how they may influence liver diseases. This project will explore the possible connection between lung diseases and liver conditions mediated by ILC2s. Our results will have important implications to lung and liver diseases.