Interferon-gamma upregulates the susceptibility of human neuroblastoma cells to interleukin-2-activated natural killer cells |
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Authors: | R Handgretinger A Kimmig P Lang B Daurer S Kuci G Bruchelt J Treuner D Niethammer |
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Institution: | Children's University Hospital, Department of Hematology and Oncology, University of Tübingen, FRG. |
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Abstract: | The influence of interferon-gamma on the susceptibility of neuroblastoma cells in cell-mediated killing was investigated. Neuroblastoma cells were only weakly susceptible targets for peripheral mononuclear cells. However, enrichment of natural killer (NK) cells or activation of NK cells with interleukin-2 resulted in a considerable increase of neuroblastoma cell lysis. Pretreatment of neuroblastoma targets with interferon-gamma additionally increased the susceptibility to enriched NK cells as well as to interleukin-2-activated NK cells. The conjugate formation between enriched NK cells and the neuroblastoma targets was not affected by the pretreatment of the targets with interferon-gamma. Concomitantly, treatment of the neuroblastoma targets with interferon-gamma resulted in a strong induction of otherwise poorly expressed major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I antigen expression. These results suggest that the increased expression of MHC class I antigens on target cells is not always correlated with decreased sensitivity for NK cells but can also be followed by an increased susceptibility for NK cells. |
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