In vitro and in vivo comparison of the activity of human lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells and adherent LAK cells.
The effectiveness of "standard" lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells, recovered after 6 days, and of "standard" adherent LAK (A-LAK) cells, recovered after 14 days of culture in the presence of recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2) from peripheral blood lymphocytes of 21 healthy donors, was assessed through comparison of their proliferation, surface markers, cytotoxic activity, lymphokine production, and antitumor activity. In the presence of rIL-2, plastic adherent precursors of A-LAK cells proliferated much better than those of "standard LAK" cells and expanded even more than 300-fold. However, the final cell recovery of A-LAK was always lower because of their very few precursors, and the total lytic units (LUs) generated in A-LAK cultures were always lower for the same reason. On the other hand, the lytic activity of each A-LAK cell was always higher than that of a LAK cell. This was particularly evident on day 6 of culture. Removal of nonadherent cells after the first 24 h culture resulted in a significant enrichment in CD3-CD56+ and CD8+CD56+ cells in A-LAK cells, with a marginal number of CD4+ cells. A significant direct correlation between LUs and A-LAK CD3-CD56+ percentage was found. In the presence of rIL-2, A-LAK cells produced higher amounts of tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interferon-gamma than LAK cells, while only A-LAK cells produced IL-1 beta and small amounts of IL-4. Neither LAK nor A-LAK produced IL-2. In the absence of injections of IL-2, LAK and A-LAK cells were equally able to inhibit the growth of a human T-cell lymphoma in immunosuppressed nude mice.
Jemma
C
C
Institute of Microbiology, University of Turin, Italy.
Cignetti
A
A
Geuna
M
M
Caretto
P
P
Vai
S
S
Forni
G
G
D000818:Animals; D000954:Antigens, Surface / Q000032:analysis; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000276:immunology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003601:Cytotoxicity Tests, Immunologic / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015979:Killer Cells, Lymphokine-Activated / Q000276:immunology*; D007700:Kinetics; D008222:Lymphokines / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude
D000954:Antigens, Surface; D008222:Lymphokines