Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
1938127 Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 2007 4 Pages PDF
Abstract

Natural Killer (NK) cells kill certain tumor cells and virus infected cells in an antigen-independent manner. Members of CD18 integrins such as CD11a, CD11b, and CD11c are expressed in all NK cells. CD18-blocking mAbs inhibit the killing activity of NK cells implying an essential role of these integrins in NK cell cytotoxicity. In this report we show that the pan CD18-activating mAb, 240Q, augments cytotoxicity of resting NK cells. Since activation of either CD11a or CD11c alone fails to augment the NK cell activity, we postulate that a functional synergy of the individual CD18 integrins is responsible for the observed stimulatory effect of pan CD18 activation on NK cell cytotoxicity.

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