Perforin dependence of natural killer cell-mediated tumor control in vivo.
Adaptive immune surveillance by T cells against infections and tumors depends on the presence of antigenic peptides presented by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules. If antigenic tumor-specific peptides or MHC class I molecules are absent, the adaptive T cell immune response fails. Natural killer (NK) cells seem to complement the specific T cells by recognizing target cells lacking MHC class I (e.g. RMA-S). The role of perforin, which is crucially involved in T cell and NK cell-mediated target cell lysis, was evaluated in mice lacking perforin with respect to their capacity to eliminate a syngeneic lymphoid tumor. Here, we show that growth of MHC class I RMA-S tumor cells in unprimed mice was controlled by NK cells through perforin-dependent cytotoxicity.
van den Broek
M F
MF
Institute of Experimental Immunology, University of Zürich, Switzerland.
Kägi
D
D
Zinkernagel
R M
RM
Hengartner
H
H
D000818:Animals; D002455:Cell Division / Q000276:immunology; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic / Q000187:drug effects; D007111:Immunity, Cellular / Q000187:drug effects; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008817:Mice, Mutant Strains; D054353:Perforin; D052899:Pore Forming Cytotoxic Proteins; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D052899:Pore Forming Cytotoxic Proteins; D054353:Perforin