title: Interleukin-2 induced activation of natural killer cells in rats and mice: a comparative study.
abstract: Effects of interleukin-2 (IL-2) on the natural killer (NK) activities of BALB/c mouse and Wistar rat spleen cells were compared. While mouse spleen cells cultured alone rapidly lost NK activity, co-culture with IL-2 resulted in a marked enhancement of NK activity. In contrast, the levels of NK activity of rat spleen cells cultured alone increased and remained high for 3 days and declined thereafter. Addition of human recombinant IL-2 or purified rat IL-2 did not influence the NK levels in rat spleen cell bulk cultures. Both IL-2 preparations were however biologically active as shown by their capacities to induced proliferation in rat spleen cells. Rat spleen cells suppressed the IL-2 activation of mouse spleen cells in a dose dependent manner, indicating a suppressor influence generated by rat spleen cells. Culture supernatants of rat spleen cells cultured with or without IL-2 for 3 or 5 days could also suppress the mouse spleen NK activation in response to IL-2. The suppressor activity could be concentrated on a 5K MW cut-off Amicon filter indicating that the molecular weight of the factor is more than 5000. These results indicate that a suppressor of IL-2 induced NK activation of mouse spleen cells is released by cultured rat spleen cells.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Immunology, School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru, University, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sarin
authors.forename: R K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Saxena
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000502:physiology*; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000502:physiology*; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013154:Spleen / Q000166:cytology; D013491:Suppressor Factors, Immunologic / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D007376:Interleukin-2; D013491:Suppressor Factors, Immunologic