Group 1 innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) comprise the natural killer (NK) cells and ILC1s. Both cells co-exist in peripheral tissues and despite effort to characterize the molecular identity and developmental pathways of ILC1s, their relationship with NK cells remains elusive. ILC1s and NK cells share many common features and analysis of ILC1s in tissues revealed a great heterogeneity and distinct transcriptional requirement of each ILC1 subsets complexifying the organization of this group. Here, we discuss whether ILC1 and NK cells can be considered as distinct lineages based on their origin, location, phenotype or transcriptional regulation. Discrimination of NK cells and ILC1s represent an important challenge to unravel the individual functions of these cells during infection and tumor immunosurveillance.

第 1 组先天淋巴细胞 (ILC) 包括自然杀伤 (NK) 细胞和 ILC1。这两种细胞共存于外周组织中，尽管努力表征 ILC1 的分子特性和发育途径，但它们与 NK 细胞的关系仍然难以捉摸。ILC1 和 NK 细胞具有许多共同特征，组织中 ILC1 的分析揭示了每个 ILC1 亚群的巨大异质性和独特的转录要求，使该组的组织复杂化。在这里，我们讨论 ILC1 和 NK 细胞是否可以根据它们的起源、位置、表型或转录调控被视为不同的谱系。区分 NK 细胞和 ILC1 是揭示这些细胞在感染和肿瘤免疫监视过程中的个体功能的重要挑战。