The CD6 scavenger receptor is known to be expressed on virtually all T cells and is supposed to be involved in costimulation, synapse formation, thymic selection and leukocyte migration. Here, we demonstrate that CD6 is differentially expressed by a subpopulation of peripheral CD56 dim natural killer (NK) cells and absent on CD56 bright NK cells. CD56 dim CD16 + cells represent the major NK sub...

BACKGROUND Natural cytotoxicity, mediated by natural killer (NK) cells plays an important role in the inhibition and elimination of malignant tumor cells. To investigate the immunoregulatory role of NK cells and their potential as diagnostic markers, NK cell activity (NKA) was analyzed in prostate cancer (PCa) patients with particular focus on NK cell subset distribution. METHODS Prospective ...

BACKGROUND AND AIM The pathological diagnosis of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is usually easily achieved. However distinguishing the follicular variant of papillary carcinoma (FVPC) from other follicular thyroid lesions is an area of controversy. In this study we investigated the role of CD56 and claudin-1 in discriminating the FVPCs from other solitary follicular patterned nodules. We als...

BACKGROUND Human uterine natural killer (uNK) cells, the dominant lymphocytes in early pregnancy decidua, are important for spiral arterial remodelling. uNK cells are thought to arise from circulating CD56(bright) NK cells that egress into decidualizing endometrium. Both incomplete spiral arterial modification and aberrant NK cell function have been linked with pre-eclampsia, a syndrome that is...

from the TILN suspension of one individual patient within the cohort to demonstrate gating strategy. First, on the left the major lymphocyte cell gate was defined by excluding tumour cells, granulated cells, dead cells, and debris by size (FSC) and granularity (SSC). Next, in the second plot CD3 and CD56 double staining was used to exclude T (CD3+) and NKT (CD56+CD3+) cells, and to sequentially...

Recent studies have demonstrated that mature natural killer (NK) cells can be grown from human triple negative (TN; CD3-, CD4-, CD8-) thymocytes, suggesting that a common NK/T cell precursor exists within the thymus that can give rise to both NK cells and T cells under appropriate conditions. In the present study, we have investigated human fetal and postnatal thymus to determine whether NK cel...

Major surgery increases the risk for infectious complications due to the development of immunosuppression. CD56 bright NK cells play a key role in the defense against bacterial infections through the release of Interferon (IFN) γ upon stimulation with monocyte-derived Interleukin (IL) 12. We investigated whether invasive visceral surgery interferes with the IFN-γ synthesis of human NK cells in ...

Anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) is a distinct entity of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, characterized by a proliferation of pleomorphic large lymphoid cells that express CD30. Recent studies have found that a subset of ALCL aberrantly expresses a chimeric anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) protein as a result of t(2;5)(p23;q35) or variant translocations. ALK-positive ALCLs feature good prognosis, but...

Natural killer cells can be divided into five subpopulations based on the relative expression of CD16 and CD56 markers. The majority of natural killer cells are CD56(dim), which are considered to be the main cytotoxic effectors. A minority of the natural killer cells are CD56(bright), and function as an important source of immune-regulatory cytokines. Shifts of these subsets have been reported ...