title: iNKT cell frequency in peripheral blood of Caucasian children and adolescent: the absolute iNKT cell count is stable from birth to adulthood.
abstract: Human invariant natural killer T cells (iNKT cells) are a unique population of T cells that express a semi-invariantly rearranged T cell receptor (TCR) and are involved in a variety of immunoregulatory processes. We assessed the frequency of peripheral blood iNKT cells in 64 healthy Caucasian children from 7 months to 18 years of age and five cord blood samples by flow cytometry. iNKT cells were measured as CD3(+) cells co-expressing TCRVα24 and TCRVβ11 and using the monoclonal antibody 6B11, which recognizes specifically their invariant TCR rearrangement. The absolute number of iNKT cells ranged from 86 to 10,499 (CD3(+) /TCRVα24(+) / TCRVβ11(+)) and 233 to 11,167 (CD3(+) /6B11(+)) iNKT cells per millilitre of blood. This range is stable from birth to adulthood. The relative iNKT cell count was found to be 0.003-0.71% (CD3(+) /TCRVα24/TCRVβ11) and 0.019-0.776% (CD3/6B11) of peripheral blood T cells and shows only a slight increase with age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Clinical Immunology, Heinrich Heine University, Duesseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bienemann
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Iouannidou
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schoenberg
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Krux
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reuther
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Feyen
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bienemann
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schuster
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Uhrberg
authors.forename: H-J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Laws
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Borkhardt
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000375:Aging; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D017252:CD3 Complex / Q000276:immunology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000276:immunology; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D008297:Male; D055611:Natural Killer T-Cells / Q000276:immunology*; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000276:immunology; D016692:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, gamma-delta / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000276:immunology; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology; D044465:White People
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D017252:CD3 Complex; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta; D016692:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, gamma-delta