Abstract
The presence of tumor-infiltrating Natural Killer (NK) within a tumor bed may be indicative of an ongoing immune response toward the tumor. However, many studies have shown that an intense NK infiltration, is associated with advanced disease and may even facilitate cancer development. The exact role of the tumor infiltrating NK cells and the correlation between their presence and poor prognosis remains unclear. Interestingly, during pregnancy high numbers of a specific NK subset, CD56(bright)CD16(dim), are accumulated within first trimester deciduas. These decidual NK (dNK) cells are unique in their gene expression pattern secret angiogenic factors that induce vascular growth. In the present study we demonstrate a significant enrichment of a CD56(brigh)CD16(dim) NK cells within tumors. These NK cells express several dNK markers including VEGF. Hence, this study adds new insights into the identity of tumor residual NK cells, which has clear implications for the treatment of human cancer.
Highlights
Tumor infiltrating Natural Killer (NK) lymphocyte cells, that are part of the innate immune system, have the ability to both lyse cells lacking majorhistocompatibility-complex (MHC) proteins and to provide immunoregulatory cytokines [1]
To further characterize tumor infiltrating NK subsets, tumor lymphocytes from breast carcinomas, melanoma and colon cancer tissues were isolated through lympocyte expansion using IL-2
Utilizing multi-color staining and flow cytometric analysis, we identified that the majority of the CD3–-gated lymphocytes infiltrating cells belong to the CD56brightCD16dim NK subset (Figure 2A–2C)
Summary
Tumor infiltrating Natural Killer (NK) lymphocyte cells, that are part of the innate immune system, have the ability to both lyse cells lacking majorhistocompatibility-complex (MHC) proteins and to provide immunoregulatory cytokines [1]. As opposed to cytotoxic T cells, the in vivo function of NK cells against tumors is much less studied. In many cases there is no correlation between the extent of tumoral NK cell infiltration and a favorable prognosis. Many studies have shown that an intense lymphocytic infiltration, NK cells in particular, is associated with advanced disease [2,3,4] and may even facilitate cancer development. The exact role of the tumor infiltrating NK cells as well as the correlation between their presence and prognosis in cancer is still unclear
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