Alternative pathway for the development of V[alpha]14+ NKT cells directly from CD4-CD8- thymocytes that bypasses the CD4+CD8+ stage

Natural killer T cells (NKT cells) are thought to originate at the double-positive stage of thymopoiesis. Taniguchi and colleagues find that a subset of NKT cells also appear earlier, at the double-negative stage, and that these give rise to liver-resident NKT cells with highly potent effector function.