Shoba Amarnath - Innate Lymphoid Cells: Methods and Protocols

For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/7651

For over 35 years, biological scientists have come to rely on the research protocols and methodologies in the critically acclaimedMethods in Molecular Biologyseries. The series was the first to introduce the step-by-step protocols approach that has become the standard in all biomedical protocol publishing. Each protocol is provided in readily-reproducible step-by-step fashion, opening with an introductory overview, a list of the materials and reagents needed to complete the experiment, and followed by a detailed procedure that is supported with a helpful notes section offering tips and tricks of the trade as well as troubleshooting advice. These hallmark features were introduced by series editor Dr. John Walker and constitute the key ingredient in each and every volume of theMethods in Molecular Biologyseries. Tested and trusted, comprehensive and reliable, all protocols from the series are indexed in PubMed.

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The immune system is broadly divided into the innate and the adaptive immune system. In recent years, a new population of immune cells called Innate Lymphoid Cells (ILCs) has been discovered. ILCs have been classified as first responders to environmental insults within the tissue micro-environment. An explosion of research in this area has identified the pleiotropic nature of these cells in driving innate immune responses, initiating adaptive immune responses, imparting tissue repair, and regulating thermogenesis. Furthermore, dysregulation of these subsets has been reported in human diseases. The purpose of this book is to provide relevant background and methodologies currently available for characterizing murine and human ILC subsets. It has been written with the aim to provide the reader with useful phenotypical and functional assays that may be relevant for studying ILC function in mice and humans. Moreover, since ILCs occupy tissue niches and are known to be important in barrier protection, methodologies to study the microbiome and enteroid cultures, which will be essential for studying human ILC function, have also been provided within the book. Detailed chapters on characterizing ILC precursors, various ILC subsets, and cellular engineering of ILCs for therapeutic use are described within the book. This book will be useful for all the readers interested in ILC biology and for those interested in fundamental immunology, cellular engineering, cell signaling, and clinician scientists.

The editor thanks all contributing authors for their collaborations, which has made this project possible; the series editor Prof. John Walker whose help and guidance have been instrumental in the success of this project; Mr. Patrick Marton and Ms. Anna Rakovsky for making the production of this book possible. I would also like to thank Dr. Arian Laurence for his help and encouragement throughout this project.