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Updated: Jul 2, 2025

Co-Culture of Murine Small Intestine Epithelial Organoids with Innate Lymphoid Cells
Published on: March 23, 2022
RORα is required for expansion and memory maintenance of ILC1s via a lymph node-liver axis
Ming Cheng1, Jiarui Li1, Jiaxi Song1
1The Institute of Immunology and the Key Laboratory of Immune Response and Immunotherapy, Biomedical Sciences and Health Laboratory of Anhui Province, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China.
Abstract:
Type 1 innate lymphoid cells (ILC1s) possess adaptive immune features, which confer antigen-specific memory responses against haptens and viruses. However, the transcriptional regulation of memory ILC1 responses is currently not known. We show that retinoic acid receptor-related orphan receptor alpha (RORα) has high expression in memory ILC1s in murine contact hypersensitivity (CHS) models. RORα deficiency diminishes ILC1-mediated CHS responses significantly but has no effect on memory T cell-mediated CHS responses. During sensitization, RORα promotes sensitized-ILC1 expansion by suppressing expression of cell-cycle repressors in draining lymph nodes. RORα programs gene-expression patterns related to cell survival and is required for the long-term maintenance of memory ILC1s in the liver. Our findings reveal RORα to be a key transcriptional factor for sensitized-ILC1 expansion and long-term maintenance of memory ILC1s.
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