Innate lymphoid cell sensing of tissue vitality

Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) constitute a heterogeneous population of cytokine-secreting cells that colonize different tissues and are heavily reliant on cytokines and other secreted factors for their development, maintenance and effector functions. Most ILCs are tissue resident and differentiate in non-lymphoid peripheral tissues. As tissue-resident sentinels, ILCs must rapidly identify pathogens or malignancy in an effort to return the tissue to homeostasis. Here we review the mechanisms that ILCs employ to sense cytokines and other potent immunoregulatory factors that promote their development in different tissues as well as the ability to distinguish pathogenic versus healthy tissue microenvironments and highlight the importance of these pathways for human disease.