MINI REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Molecular Innate Immunity
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1622187
This article is part of the Research TopicInnate Immunity in the Context of Type 2 ResponsesView all articles
The Role of IL-2 in Type 2 Immunity
Provisionally accepted
Naoya Tatsumi
Yosuke Kumamoto*- Center for Immunity and Inflammation, Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, United States
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Type 2 immune responses are essential for protective immunity against helminth parasites and for promoting tissue repair, but they can also drive allergic inflammation. T helper type 2 (Th2) cells and group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) are key drivers of these responses, producing hallmark type 2 cytokines such as IL-4, IL-5, IL-9 and/or IL-13. While IL-2 has long been recognized as a T cell growth factor, emerging evidence reveals its central role in shaping Th2 cell fate and function. This review focuses on recent studies on how the availability of IL-2 is regulated in vivo for inducing Th2 cells. We also discuss the role of IL-2 in activating ILC2s and thereby linking innate and adaptive immune system in the context of type 2 immunity. Together, the studies discussed here highlight the role of IL-2 as a spatially and functionally dynamic coordinator of type 2 immunity.
Keywords: IL-2 (interleukin-2), T helper type 2 (Th2), ILC2 - group 2 innate lymphoid cell, dendritic cell (DC), Type 2 immunity
Received: 02 May 2025; Accepted: 26 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tatsumi and Kumamoto. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yosuke Kumamoto, Center for Immunity and Inflammation, Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, United States
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