Ricerc@Sapienza

NK cells are lymphocytes of the innate immune system, which are able to deal promptly with stressed cells. Cellular senescence is a cell stress response leading to cell cycle arrest that plays a key role during tissue homeostasis and carcinogenesis. In this review, how senescent cells trigger an immune response and, in particular, the ability of NK cells to recognize and clear senescent cells are discussed. Special attention is given to the NK cell-mediated clearance of senescent tumor cells.

De-regulated T-cell activation and functions are pivotal in the orchestration of immune-mediated tissue damage in IBD. We investigated the role of DNAM-1 (co-activating)/TIGIT (co-inhibitory)/ligand axis in the regulation of T-cell functions and its involvement in IBD pathogenesis. We show that DNAM-1 and TIGIT display a peculiar expression pattern on gut mucosa T-cell populations, in a microenvironment where their shared ligands (PVR and Nectin-2) are physiologically present.