β-Catenin is required for the differentiation of iNKT2 and iNKT17 cells that augment IL-25-dependent lung inflammation.

Background Invariant Natural Killer T (iNKT) cells have been implicated in lung inflammation in humans and also shown to be a key cell type in inducing allergic lung inflammation in mouse models. iNKT cells differentiate and acquire functional characteristics during development in the thymus. However, the correlation between development of iNKT cells in the thymus and role in lung inflammation remains unknown. In addition, transcriptional control of differentiation of iNKT cells into iNKT cell effector subsets in the thymus during development is also unclear. In this report we show that β-catenin dependent mechanisms direct differentiation of iNKT2 and iNKT17 subsets but not iNKT1 cells.