ヒトNK様培養細胞KHYG‐1を用いたNK細胞機能の評価

NK cells play an important role in the elimination of viral infection and tumors. In recent years, immune cell therapy using activated NK cells has attracted attention, and the search for activators and evaluation of NK cell activity have become important. We previously reported a positive correlation between CD５６antigen expression, which is the major cell membrane antigen of human NK cells, and NK cell activity or cytotoxicity, and demonstrated that it is possible to evaluate NK cell function using the CD５６ antigen as an index. This simple evaluation method is useful for functional evaluation of NK cells and the search for activators. However, it requires blood sampling and preparation of NK cells because it uses human NK cells. Therefore, in this study, we examined whether the CD５６ antigen functions as an activation index using KHYG‐１ human NK-like cultured cells as a substitute for NK cells.
As a result, the CD５６antigen on the KHYG‐１cell membrane was increased in a concentration-dependent manner by IL‐２ stimulation, as was the cytotoxicity. This suggests that the CD５６ antigen on the KHYG‐１ cell membrane can be used as an evaluation index of NK activity as in human NK cells.