Abstract.
Purpose: We aimed to determine the effects of human umbilical cord blood (UCB)-derived natural killer T (NKT) cells as immunological effectors against hematological malignancies, as well as auto- or allo-dendritic cells (DCs) or EB transformed cell lines (EBCLs). Materials: TCRVα24+ Vβ11+ UCB- or PB-NKT cells were isolated by sorting and activated by α-galactosylceramide-pulsed autologous DCs. UCB-NK cells were induced from CD34+ cells by stem cell factor plus IL-15. UCB-T cells were primarily activated by anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody. All those effectors were cultured with IL-2 (100 U/ml), and their cytotoxic activities were evaluated by 51Cr-release assay. UCB-NKT cells were cultured with IL-12, IL-18 or higher dose of IL-2 (1000 U/ml), and again tested for the cytotoxicity against selected targets. Results: UCB-NKT cells exhibited a pattern of killing activity against various hematological malignancies similar to that of UCB-NK cells, but could not kill K562, which was a vulnerable target for NK cells. The level of activity was quite similar to that of PB-NKT cells. In contrast, OKT-3-activated UCB-T lymphocytes showed a stronger and wider spectrum of killing compared with UCB-NK or NKT cells. IL-12, IL-18 or a higher dose of IL-2 upregulated the activity; however several targets, including fresh leukemic cells, still remained resistant. NKT cells killed auto- or allo-DCs at a level similar to that of T cells, but could not kill allo-EBCLs, which were efficiently killed by T cells. While NK cells showed only marginal or no killing against DC or EBCLs. Discussion: The anti-cancer activity of human NKT cells depends on the concentrations or the combination of Th1-cytokines. Basically, those cells might not be contributing to the immune surveillance of hematological malignancies, as shown by a relatively low cytotoxicity against malignant cells, together with the quite strong killing against auto-DCs.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Electronic Publication
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hagihara, M., Gansuvd, B., Ueda, Y. et al. Killing activity of human umbilical cord blood-derived TCRValpha24+ NKT cells against normal and malignant hematological cells in vitro: a comparative study with NK cells or OKT3 activated T lymphocytes or with adult peripheral blood NKT cells. Cancer Immunol Immunother 51, 1–8 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-001-0246-2
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-001-0246-2