Flow Cytometry-based Assay for the Monitoring of NK Cell Functions

Overview

Journal J Vis Exp

Specialties Biology
General Medicine

Date 2016 Nov 15

PMID 27842341

Citations 8

Authors

Sara Tognarelli

Benedikt Jacobs

Nina Staiger

Evelyn Ullrich

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Natural killer (NK) cells are an important part of the human tumor immune surveillance system. NK cells are able to distinguish between healthy and virus-infected or malignantly transformed cells due to a set of germline encoded inhibitory and activating receptors. Upon virus or tumor cell recognition a variety of different NK cell functions are initiated including cytotoxicity against the target cell as well as cytokine and chemokine production leading to the activation of other immune cells. It has been demonstrated that accurate NK cell functions are crucial for the treatment outcome of different virus infections and malignant diseases. Here a simple and reliable method is described to analyze different NK cell functions using a flow cytometry-based assay. NK cell functions can be evaluated not only for the whole NK cell population, but also for different NK cell subsets. This technique enables scientists to easily study NK cell functions in healthy donors or patients in order to reveal their impact on different malignancies and to further discover new therapeutic strategies.

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