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The CD16^–/CD56^bright Subset of NK Cells Is Resistant to Oxidant-Induced Cell Death¹

Department of Infectious Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden

Phagocyte-derived reactive oxygen species ("oxygen radicals") have been ascribed a suppressive role in immunoregulation by inducing dysfunction and apoptotic cell death in lymphocytes. Earlier studies show that human NK cells are exceptionally sensitive to oxygen radical-induced apoptosis and functional inhibition. Two subsets of human CD56⁺ NK cells have been identified: the highly cytotoxic CD56^dim cells which constitute >90% of NK cells in peripheral blood, and the less cytotoxic but efficiently cytokine-producing CD56^bright cells. In this study, we demonstrate that the CD56^bright subset of NK cells, in contrast to CD56^dim cells, remains viable and functionally intact after exposure to phagocyte-derived or exogenously added oxygen radicals. The resistance of CD56^bright cells to oxidative stress was accompanied by a high capacity of neutralizing exogenous hydrogen peroxide, and by a high cell-surface expression of antioxidative thiols. Our results imply that CD56^bright NK cells are endowed with an efficient antioxidative defense system that protects them from oxygen radical-induced inactivation.

The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

¹ This work was supported by Swedish Cancer Society, Swedish Research Council, Inga-Britt and Arne Lundberg Research Foundation, and Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University.

² Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Kristoffer Hellstrand, Department of Infectious Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University, Guldhedsgatan 10b, S-413 46 Göteborg, Sweden. E-mail address: kristoffer.hellstrand{at}microbio.gu.se

³ Abbreviations used in this paper: PMN, polymorphonuclear phagocyte; MP, mononuclear phagocyte; MFI, median fluorescence intensity; ALM-633, Alexa-633 C5-maleimide; PARP, poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase; AIF, apoptosis-inducing factor.