Nuocytes represent a new innate effector leukocyte that mediates type-2 immunity

Abstract

Innate immunity provides the first line of defence against invading pathogens and provides important cues for the development of adaptive immunity. Type-2 immunity – responsible for protective immune responses to helminth parasites 1, 2 and the underlying cause of the pathogenesis of allergic asthma 3, 4 – consists of responses dominated by the cardinal type-2 cytokines interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5 and IL-13 (ref. 5). T cells are an important source of these cytokines in adaptive immune responses, but the innate cell sources remain to be comprehensively elucidated. Here, through the use of novel Il13eGFP reporter mice, we present the identification and functional characterisation of a new innate type-2 immune effector leukocyte that we have named the nuocyte. Nuocytes expand in vivo in response to the type 2-inducing cytokines IL-25 and IL-33, and represent the predominant early source of IL-13 during helminth infection with Nippostrongylus brasiliensis. In the combined absence of IL-25 and IL-33 signalling, nuocytes fail to expand, resulting in a severe defect in worm expulsion that is rescued by the adoptive transfer of in vitro cultured wildtype, but not IL-13-deficient, nuocytes. Thus, nuocytes represent a critically important innate effector cell in type-2 immunity.