The role of NK cells in the regulation of experimental metastasis in a murine lymphoma system.
This report describes the role of natural killer (NK) cells in regulating the localization of two closely related murine lymphomas (ASL1 and ASL1w) to various organ sites. These tumors are phenotypically similar yet differ in their overall malignancy and experimental metastatic pattern. Both tumors show similar patterns of migration in kinetic studies, however, they vary in their NK susceptibility. Cold target inhibition analysis and assessment of susceptibility to cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) suggested that the NK resistance of ASL1 was due to the lack of expression of a relevant target structure(s) required for NK recognition. The role of NK cells in regulating the growth of the tumors in vivo was studied by altering NK cell levels in recipient mice prior to tumor injection. Neither NK cell depletion nor augmentation affected the growth of the NK resistant ASL1 tumor but NK depletion significantly shortened the mean survival time (MST) of recipients of the NK sensitive ASL1w tumor as well as changed its metastatic pattern; conversely, NK augmentation significantly increased the MST of ASL1w recipients. These data suggest that NK cells play a critical role in determining the metastatic characteristics of the ASL1w lymphoma.
Smithson
G
G
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Louisiana State University Medical Center, Shreveport 71130.
Bittick
T H
TH
Chervenak
R
R
Lee
S J
SJ
Wolcott
R M
RM
D000818:Animals; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000276:immunology; D007165:Immunosuppression Therapy; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D008212:Lymphocyte Depletion; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D010641:Phenotype; D013160:Splenic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology