Fig. 1: CircKcnt2 is highly induced in ILC3s during intestinal inflammation.

a Heatmap of differentially expressed circRNAs (100 most upregulated and 100 most downregulated) in small intestinal ILC3s (Lin⁻CD45^lowCD90^high) from Rag1^−/− mice treated with or without DSS. ILC3s in intestines were isolated by FACS, followed by circRNA microarray analysis. Veh vehicle. b qRT-PCR analysis for top ten upregulated circRNAs in small intestinal ILC3s from DSS-treated Rag1^−/− mice. n = 3 independent samples. c ILC3s isolated from DSS-treated Rag1^−/− mice were infected with lentiviruses carrying shRNAs against circRNAs for 48 h. Then 3 × 10⁴ GFP⁺ ILC3s per mouse were transplanted into Rag1^−/−Il2rg^−/− mice. Two weeks later, Rag1^−/−Il2rg^−/− mice were treated with DSS, followed by analysis. d H&E staining of colons from transplanted Rag1^−/−Il2rg^−/− mice as treated in c. Scale bar, 100 μm. e Colitis scores of indicated mice after DSS treatment as in c (*P = 0.0399; **P = 0.0031). n = 5 for each group. f Northern blotting analysis for circKcnt2 expression in different tissues from Rag1^−/− mice treated with or without DSS. g qRT-PCR analysis for circKcnt2 expression in indicated hematopoietic cells isolated from WT mice treated with or without DSS. n = 3 independent samples. h CircKcnt2 expression in ILC3s from Rag1^−/− mice treated with 3% DSS was analyzed at different time points. n = 5 independent samples. i ILC3s were isolated from Rag1^−/− mice treated with 3% DSS and then circKcnt2 expression was detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Biotin-labeled head-to-tail RNA probes were in green. Nuclei were counterstained with DAPI. Scale bar, 5 μm. *P < 0.05 and ***P < 0.001. Data were analyzed by an unpaired Student’s t-test and shown as means ± SD. Data are representative of at least three independent experiments. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.