title: High expression of NKG2A/CD94 and low expression of granzyme B are associated with reduced cord blood NK cell activity.
abstract: Human umbilical cord blood (CB) has recently been used as a source of stem cells in transplantation. NK cells derived from CB are the key effector cells involved in graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and graft-versus-leukemia (GVL). It was reported that the activity of CB NK cells was lower than that of adult peripheral blood (PB) NK cells. In this study, we analyzed the expression of some NK cell receptors and cytotoxicity-related molecules in CB and PB NK cells. The expressions of activating NK receptors, CD16, NKG2D and NKp46, did not show significant difference between CB and PB NK cells. But the expression of inhibitory receptor NKG2A/CD94 was significantly higher on CB NK cells. As to the effector function molecules, granzyme B was expressed significantly lower in CB NK cells, but the expressions of intracellular perforin, IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha and cell surface FasL and TRAIL did not show difference between CB and PB NK cells. The results indicated that the high expression of NKG2A/CD94 and low expression of granzyme B may be related with the reduced activity of CB NK cells.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Immunology, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Materials at Microscale, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China.
authors.forename: Yanyan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Han
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Xiaodong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Haiming
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Zhigang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Tian
mesh_terms: D016207:Cytokines / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D005312:Fetal Blood; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000276:immunology; D020544:Graft vs Leukemia Effect / Q000276:immunology; D053804:Granzymes / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000378:metabolism; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D055654:NK Cell Lectin-Like Receptor Subfamily C; D051920:NK Cell Lectin-Like Receptor Subfamily D / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D055655:NK Cell Lectin-Like Receptor Subfamily K; D011971:Receptors, Immunologic / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D055607:Receptors, Natural Killer Cell; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines; C527054:KLRC1 protein, human; C497869:KLRD1 protein, human; C527085:KLRK1 protein, human; D055654:NK Cell Lectin-Like Receptor Subfamily C; D051920:NK Cell Lectin-Like Receptor Subfamily D; D055655:NK Cell Lectin-Like Receptor Subfamily K; D011971:Receptors, Immunologic; D055607:Receptors, Natural Killer Cell; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D007371:Interferon-gamma; D053804:Granzymes