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Updated: Jun 21, 2026

Purification and Expansion of Mouse Invariant Natural Killer T Cells for in vitro and in vivo Studies
Published on: February 15, 2021
Innate-like recognition of microbes by invariant natural killer T cells
Mitchell Kronenberg1, Yuki Kinjo
1La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. mitch@liai.org
Abstract:
Invariant natural killer T cells (iNKT cells) express a restricted T cell antigen receptor (TCR) repertoire and they respond rapidly to glycolipid antigens presented by CD1d. These glycolipid antigens have hexose sugars in alpha-linkage to two types of lipids that can bind to CD1d. Recent work has shown that the responses of iNKT cells to antigen-bearing microbes can have a profound impact on the development of inflammatory diseases. iNKT cells overcome the limitation of their limited TCR diversity by also responding in a foreign antigen-independent fashion to some infectious agents, similar to NK cells. Recent results demonstrate several mechanisms for the indirect activation of iNKT cells by viruses or TLR ligands, dependent on self-antigen recognition and/or different cytokines produced by antigen presenting cells. The means by which iNKT cells influence other cell types and overall host defense are likewise diverse, illustrating the flexibility and functional diversity of this T lymphocyte sublineage.
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