Cytotoxicity of Human Cord Blood Natural Killer Cells is Enhanced by Recombinant Interleukin-15

• Published in: Iranian Journal of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology
• Main Authors: Shiva Saghafi, Ali Akbar Pourfathollah, Maryam Kheirandish, Anahita Azimdoust, Massoud Behnia, Mohammad Shahjahani, Mostafa Moin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tehran University of Medical Sciences 2010-06-01
• Subjects: Apoptosis; Cord blood; Cytotoxicity; IL-15; Natural Killer; Necrosis
• Online Access: https://ijaai.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijaai/article/view/271
• ISSN: 1735-1502; 1735-5249

Hematopoietic cord blood (CB) stem cell transplantation has more advantages to other cell sources because of lower Graft Versus Host Disease (GVHD). Interleukin-15(IL-15) is an immunoregulatory cytokine, known to enhance cytolytic function of cord Natural Killer (NK) cells. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of IL-15 on NK cytotoxicity simultaneously in different cell death stages. We compared the ability of IL-15 to enhance the NK cytotoxicity of CB in comparison to adult blood Mononuclear Cells (MNCs) against K562 target cells by co-staining with AnnexinV-FITC and Propidium Iodide after 3.5 h incubation at 37C and 5% CO2 by using flow cytometric method. We also evaluated phenotypic changes after treatment by IL-15 in both cell sources. Our results indicated that CB samples had lower level of apoptosis, while necrosis was negligible; also by escalating Effector: Target (E: T), we got higher level of apoptosis and necrosis in peripheral blood (PB). NK activity of cord and adult MNCs was enhanced by incubation with IL-15 (10 ng/ml) for 72 h with significantly higher results of PB in comparison to CB (p