Natural killer (NK) cells are innate immune lymphocytes that play critical roles in host defense against viral infection and surveillance against malignant transformation. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are important immune system regulators. Here, we analyzed human primary lymphocyte lncRNA expression profiles to identify NK-lncRNA signatures. We detected numerous novel NK-specific lncRNAs with...

OBJECTIVE Apoptosis of natural killer (NK) cells is increased in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and may explain why NK cell levels are altered in these patients. Soluble forms of Fas and Fas ligand (L) are considered as markers of apoptosis. Here, we investigated whether plasma levels of Fas and FasL were associated with NK cell apoptosis and NK cell levels in CAD patients. METHO...

The distinct feature of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a high incidence of chronicity. The reason for chronic HCV infection has been actively investigated, and impairment of innate and adaptive immune responses against HCV is proposed as a plausible cause. Whereas functional impairment of HCV-specific T cells is well characterized, the role and functional status of natural killer (NK) cel...

Natural killer (NK) cells are innate lymphoid cells involved in the defense against virus-infected cells and tumor cells. NK cell phenotype and function is affected with age and cytomegalovirus (CMV) latent infection. Aging affects the frequency and phenotype of NK cells, and CMV infection also contributes to these alterations. Thus, a reduction of CD56bright NK cell subpopulation associated wi...

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic demyelinating disease of presumed autoimmune pathogenesis. The patients with multiple sclerosis typically shows alternating relapse and remission in the early stage of illness. We previously found that in the majority of multiple sclerosis patients in a state of remission, natural killer (NK) cells contain unusually high frequencies of the cells expressing CD95 (...

We have developed a model system which can be utilized for characterizing both the molecular basis of natural killer (NK):tumor interactions and the consequences of these interactions on tumor growth in vivo. This model system consists of several tumor lines which were derived from the murine lymphoma ASL1w under conditions which permitted the isolation of clonal lines that differ in their susc...

Resting human NK cells require a two-stage activation process that we have previously described as "priming" and "triggering." NK-sensitive tumor cells provide both priming and triggering signals. NK-resistant tumors evade lysis, mostly by failure to prime; however, we recently reported a tumor cell line (CTV-1) that primes resting NK cells but fails to trigger lysis. In this article, we report...

Natural killer (NK) cells play an important role as cytotoxic effector cells, which scan the organism for infected or tumorigenic cells. Conflicting data have been published whether NK cells can also kill allogeneic or even autologous pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) and which receptors are involved. A clarification of this question is relevant since an activity of NK cells against PSCs could redu...

We have developed a model system which can be utilized for charac terizing both the molecular basis of natural killer (NK):tumor interac tions and the consequences of these interactions on tumor growth in rivo. This model system consists of several tumor lines which were derived from the murine lymphoma ASLlw under conditions which permitted the isolation of clonal lines that differ in their su...

Although many articles have reported immune abnormalities in autism, NK cell activity has only been examined in one study of 31 patients, of whom 12 were found to have reduced NK activity. The mechanism behind this low NK cell activity was not explored. For this reason, we explored the measurement of NK cell activity in 1027 blood samples from autistic children obtained from ten clinics and com...