title: Studies of natural killer cell activity. I. Normal range of a natural killer cell activity in the healthy Chinese.
abstract: This study was undertaken to establish a normal distribution curve for natural killer (NK) cell activity in healthy Chinese. NK cell activity was detected in 123 persons of different age groups, from the newborn to 84 years of age. None had any reported infection. The mononuclear cells were obtained from peripheral blood and cord blood for NK test; K562 cells were used as target cells to assay NK cell activity. The results indicated that cord blood had the lower NK cell activity. Increasing NK cell activity was seen with increasing age. In the 20 year to 49 year range, the NK cell activity reached maximal value. The NK cell activity gradually decreased when the age was greater than 50 years.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D044466:Asian People; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D013624:Taiwan