TY - JOUR
T1 - Analysis of the activating receptors and cytolytic function of human natural killer cells undergoing in vivo differentiation after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation
AU - Vitale, Chiara
AU - Chiossone, Laura
AU - Morreale, Giuseppe
AU - Lanino, Edoardo
AU - Cottalasso, Francesca
AU - Moretti, Sara
AU - Dini, Giorgio
AU - Moretta, Lorenzo
AU - Mingari, Maria Cristina
PY - 2004/2
Y1 - 2004/2
N2 - Patients undergoing allogeneic bone marrow transplantation offer a unique system to analyze NK cell development in vivo. We analyzed NK cells from 23 such patients to assess the acquisition of activating receptors. Four patients displayed an immature NK cell surface phenotype at engraftment, as their cells were CD16-KIR- and NKG2D- but expressed low levels of NKp46, NKp30, 2B4 and NKG2A. These NK cells had particularly low cytolytic activity against the HLA-class-I- melanoma F01 cell line and the 721-221 EBV-infected B cell line. Moreover, cytoxicity was inhibited upon mAb-mediated crosslinking of 2B4. Analysis of NK cells at day 30 after bone marrow transplantation revealed the occurrence of both phenotypic and functional maturation. These data are in agreement with a previous in vitro study showing that immature NK cell precursors express CD16, NKG2D and KIR only at a late stage of differentiation and also express inhibitory 2B4. Our present study allows a better understanding of the NK cell differentiation in vivo.
AB - Patients undergoing allogeneic bone marrow transplantation offer a unique system to analyze NK cell development in vivo. We analyzed NK cells from 23 such patients to assess the acquisition of activating receptors. Four patients displayed an immature NK cell surface phenotype at engraftment, as their cells were CD16-KIR- and NKG2D- but expressed low levels of NKp46, NKp30, 2B4 and NKG2A. These NK cells had particularly low cytolytic activity against the HLA-class-I- melanoma F01 cell line and the 721-221 EBV-infected B cell line. Moreover, cytoxicity was inhibited upon mAb-mediated crosslinking of 2B4. Analysis of NK cells at day 30 after bone marrow transplantation revealed the occurrence of both phenotypic and functional maturation. These data are in agreement with a previous in vitro study showing that immature NK cell precursors express CD16, NKG2D and KIR only at a late stage of differentiation and also express inhibitory 2B4. Our present study allows a better understanding of the NK cell differentiation in vivo.
KW - 2B4
KW - Activating receptor
KW - Bone marrow transplantation
KW - NK cell differentiation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=1642275490&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=1642275490&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/eji.200324668
DO - 10.1002/eji.200324668
M3 - Article
C2 - 14768050
AN - SCOPUS:1642275490
VL - 34
SP - 455
EP - 460
JO - European Journal of Immunology
JF - European Journal of Immunology
SN - 0014-2980
IS - 2
ER -