MINI REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. T Cell Biology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1648305
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing T Cell Biology: Novel Insights into Epitope Recognition and Immune Response DynamicsView all 3 articles
Immunobiology roles of the human CD161 receptor in T cells
Provisionally accepted
- The Second Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China
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Human C-type lectin-like molecule CD161 is a type II transmembrane protein expressed on the surface of various lymphocytes within both the innate and adaptive immune systems. CD161 serves as a marker for innate-like T cells and IL-17-producing cells. However, the meaning of these T cells expressing CD161 has not yet been fully determined. Is CD161 merely a phenotypic marker used to identify T cells that are in a common state of activation and/or lineage? Or does this C-type lectin itself have important effector functions? This article aims to explore the latest research progress on CD161-expressing T cells, particularly human αβTCR+T and γδTCR +T cells, and evaluate the importance of CD161 expression on immune function and human diseases through this research.
Keywords: CD161, LLT1, T cells, Th17 Cells, MAIT cells
Received: 17 Jun 2025; Accepted: 31 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tong, wang, liu and yang. 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: xinyue yang, The Second Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China
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