title: Role of spontaneous and interleukin-2-induced natural killer cell activity in the cytotoxicity and rejection of Fas+ and Fas- tumor cells.
abstract: In the current study, we investigated whether the naive, poly I:C or interleukin-2 (IL-2)-induced natural killer (NK)/lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells use perforin and/or Fas ligand (FasL) to mediated cytotoxicity. We correlated these findings with the ability of mice to reject syngeneic Fas+ and Fas- tumor cells either spontaneously or after IL-2 treatment. The spontaneous NK-cell-mediated cytotoxicity was primarily perforin based, whereas the poly I:C and IL-2-induced NK/LAK activity was both FasL and perforin dependent. L1210 Fas+ tumor targets were more sensitive than L1210 Fas- targets to poly I:C and IL-2-induced cytotoxicity in wild-type, gld/gld, and perforin knockout mice. When L1210 Fas+ and Fas- tumor cells were injected subcutaneously (sc) or intraperitoneally into syngeneic mice, Fas- tumor cells caused mortality earlier than Fas+ tumor cells. Also, approximately 20% of the mice injected sc with L1210 Fas+ tumor cells survived the challenge(>60 days), whereas all mice injected similarly with L1210 Fas- tumor cells died. When immunotherapy using IL-2 (10,000 U, three times/d for a week, followed by once/d for an additional week) was attempted in mice injected sc with tumor cells, IL-2 treatment was very effective against mice bearing L1210 Fas+ (40% survival) but not L1210 Fas- (0% survival) tumors. These data correlated with the finding that the LAK cells from IL-2-injected mice caused increased cytotoxicity against L1210 Fas+ when compared with L1210 Fas- targets. Also, L1210 Fas+ tumor-bearing mice showed increased tumor-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) activity when compared with those bearing L1210 Fas- tumor cells. Together our studies show for the first time that expression of Fas on tumor targets makes them more immunogenic as well as susceptible to CTL- and IL-2-induced LAK activity. The Fas+ tumor cells are also more responsive to immunotherapy with IL-2.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and the Department of Biomedical Sciences & Pathobiology, Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bradley
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zeytun
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rafi-Janajreh
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Nagarkatti
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nagarkatti
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000276:immunology* / Q000494:pharmacology; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology*; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000187:drug effects; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008811:Mice, Inbred DBA; D009374:Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000276:immunology*; D019014:fas Receptor / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D007376:Interleukin-2; D019014:fas Receptor