| First Author | Yoshizawa K | Year | 2011 |
| Journal | J Immunol | Volume | 187 |
| Issue | 10 | Pages | 5162-9 |
| PubMed ID | 21967894 | Mgi Jnum | J:179505 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:5302587 | Doi | 10.4049/jimmunol.1101561 |
| Citation | Yoshizawa K, et al. (2011) IL-15-high-responder developing NK cells bearing Ly49 receptors in IL-15-/- mice. J Immunol 187(10):5162-9 |
| abstractText | In mice lacking IL-15, NK cell development is arrested at immature stages, providing an opportunity to investigate the earliest developing NK cells that would respond to IL-15. We show in this study that immature NK cells were present in the spleen as well as bone marrow (BM) and contained IL-15-high-responder cells. Thus, mature NK cells were generated more efficiently from IL-15(-/-) than from control donor cells in radiation BM chimeras, and the rate of IL-15-induced cell division in vitro was higher in NK cells in the spleen and BM from IL-15(-/-) mice than in those from wild-type mice. Phenotypically, NK cells developed in IL-15(-/-) mice up to the minor but discrete CD11b(-)CD27(+)DX5(hi)CD51(dull)CD127(dull)CD122(hi) stage, which contained the majority of Ly49G2(+) and D(+) NK cells both in the spleen and BM. Even among wild-type splenic NK cells, IL-15-induced proliferation was most prominent in CD11b(-)DX5(hi) cells. Notably, IL-15-mediated preferential expansion (but not conversion from Ly49(-) cells) of Ly49(+) NK cells was observed in vitro only for NK cells in the spleen. These observations indicated the uneven distribution of NK cells of different developing stages with variable IL-15 responsiveness in these lymphoid organs. Immature NK cells in the spleen may contribute, as auxiliaries to those in BM, to the mature NK cell compartment through IL-15-driven extramarrow expansion under steady-state or inflammatory conditions. |
