Human Adipose Tissue Atlas v1.0 — Lymphoid cells

CD56⁺CD16⁻ Immature NK cells

Ontology Term: immature NK T cellCL:0000914
Synonyms Terms that have the same, or nearly the same, meaning as the selected cell type.: mature natural killer T-lymphocyte, mature NK T lymphocyte, mature NKT cell, mature NK T-cell
Category Class of which the cell type is a subclass.: natural killer cellCL:0000623
Ontology Assessment Disagreements with any aspect of the Cell Ontology.: —
Marker Gene Evidence Gene markers used by researcher to assign this cell annotation.: NCR1, NCAM1, IL7R, SELL
Canonical Marker Genes: NCR1, NCAM1, IL7R, SELL
Negative Marker Genes Genes expected to be absent, or expressed at a notably low level, in these cells, and whose absence supports the assignment of this cell annotation.: —
Rationale: NCR1 (NKp46) and NCAM1 (CD56) confirm NK cell lineage identity. IL7R (CD127) and SELL (CD62L) show enriched expression in immature and less differentiated NK cells, with SELL being associated with lymph node homing and an immature NK cell state. Together these markers identify immature NK cells and distinguish them from mature CD56⁺CD16⁺ and CD56⁺CD16⁻ NK cell populations.
Rationale DOI: 10.57785/e9e1-wh09 10.1038/s42255-025-01296-9