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Research continues to support the involvement of innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) in mucosal immunity, and ILCs have been shown to display functional plasticity between group 1 ILCs (ILC1s) and group 3 ILCs (ILC3s). ILC1s, group 2 ILCs (ILC2s), and ILC3s are functionally similar to the subset of helper CD4+ T cells, TH1, TH2, and TH17 cells, respectively, which have also been shown to demonstrate similar plasticity. Silver et al (Nat Immunol 2016;17:626-35; http://ift.tt/2fH7xnN) show that ILC2s also exhibit plasticity when exposed to influenza virus or cigarette smoke through conversion of lung-resident ILC2s into ILC1s characterized by lower expression of the transcription factor GATA-3, which drives TH2 and ILC2 cells.

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