Lung-resident γδ T cells and their roles in lung diseases

Abstract

γδ T cells are greatly enriched in mucosal and epithelial sites, such as the skin, respiratory, digestive and reproductive tracts, and they are defined as tissue-resident immune cells. In these tissues, the characteristics and biological roles of γδ T cells are distinguished from each other. The lungs represent the most challenging immunological dilemma for the host, and they have their own effective immune system. The abundance of γδ T cells, an estimated 8–20% of resident pulmonary lymphocytes in the lung, maintains lung tissue homeostasis. In this review, we summarize the recent research progress regarding lung-resident γδ T cells, including their development, residency and immune characteristics, and discuss the involvement of γδ T cells in infectious diseases of the lung, including bacterial, viral and fungal infections; lung allergic disease; lung inflammation and fibrosis; and lung cancer.