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The characteristics of NK cells in Schistosoma japonicum-infected mouse spleens

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Abstract

Natural killer (NK) cells are classic innate immune cells that play roles in many types of infectious disease. Recently, some new characteristics of NK cells were discovered. In this study, C57BL/6 mice were infected with Schistosoma japonicum for 5–6 weeks and lymphocytes were isolated from the spleen to detect some of the NK cell characteristics by multiparametric flow cytometry. The results revealed that the S. japonicum infection induced a large amount of NK cells, although the percentage of NK cells was not increased significantly. At the same time, the results showed that infected mouse splenic NK cells expressed increased levels of CD25 and CD69 and produced more IL-2, IL-4, and IL-17 and less IFN-γ after stimulation with PMA and ionomycin. This meant that NK cells played a role in S. japonicum infection. Moreover, decreased NKG2A/C/E (CD94) expression levels were detected on the surface of NK cells from infected mouse spleens, which might serve as a NK cell activation mechanism. Additionally, high levels of IL-10, but not PD-1, were expressed on the infected mouse NK cells, which implied that functional exhaustion might exist in the splenic NK cells from S. japonicum-infected mice. Collectively, our results suggest that NK cells play important roles in the course of S. japonicum infection.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant that was obtained from the College Scientific Research Projects in Guangzhou City (2012C117).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, Institute of Immunology, Guangzhou Medical University, 511436, Guangzhou, China

      Lu Li, Hefei Cha, Xiuxue Yu & Jun Huang

    2. Functional Experiment Centre, Guangzhou Medical University, 511436, Guangzhou, China

      Hongyan Xie

    3. Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Control Research of Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-sen University, 510080, Guangzhou, China

      Changyou Wu

    4. Affiliated Xiamen Eye Center and Eye Institute of Xiamen University, 361001, Xiamen, China

      Nuo Dong

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    1. Lu Li
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    2. Hefei Cha
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    3. Xiuxue Yu
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    4. Hongyan Xie
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    5. Changyou Wu
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    6. Nuo Dong
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    7. Jun Huang
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    Correspondence to Nuo Dong or Jun Huang.

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    Lu Li, Hefei Cha and Xiuxue Yu contributed equally to this work.

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    Li, L., Cha, H., Yu, X. et al. The characteristics of NK cells in Schistosoma japonicum-infected mouse spleens. Parasitol Res 114, 4371–4379 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-015-4674-x

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-015-4674-x

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