Inhibition of natural killer cell activity in vitro by alcohols

The effect of the addition of small quantities of alcohols to cocultures of natural killer effector cells from $\text{C57BL}\text{6}$ mice and BDIX rats with YAC-1 tumor cell targets has been studied. The order of inhibition of NK cell-mediated killing is 1-butanol > 1-propanol > 2-propanol > ethanol > methanol. The inhibition of killing due to the addition of alcohol correlates with decreases of effector-target cell binding. Therefore caution should be exercised in interpreting results of cellular experiments in which these alcohols have been used to solubilize inhibitors.