title: Effect of pharmacological purging on natural killer cell number and activity in human bone marrow.
abstract: We assayed natural killer (NK) cell activity and phenotype from human bone marrow (BM) following "purge" with 4-hydroperoxycyclophosphamide (4HC) at 60 micrograms/ml for 30 min in vitro. In all cases studied, lytic activity against the K562 cell line was either significantly decreased or abolished following 4HC purge. Although NK activity was significantly affected by 4HC treatment, no major differences in the phenotype between the purged and unpurged population were seen. Further, while in vitro culture of BM with IL2 resulted in a significant increment of NK activity, no IL-2 responsive cells were found in the 4HC purged BM after 14 days of culture. This study demonstrates that pharmacological purging of bone marrow results in a persistent functional decline of NK cell activity and may serve as a useful model for the study of the ontogeny of NK cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington 06030.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Cardoso
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fallon
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mukherji
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marusic
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gaffney
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Ascensao
mesh_terms: D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000276:immunology; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003520:Cyclophosphamide / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000494:pharmacology; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000276:immunology; D004915:Leukemia, Erythroblastic, Acute; D007958:Leukocyte Count / Q000187:drug effects; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D003520:Cyclophosphamide; C011272:perfosfamide