Adaptive immune features of natural killer cells

Joseph C. Sun, Joshua N. Beilke and Lewis L. Lanier ()
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Joseph C. Sun: University of California, San Francisco, California 94143, USA
Joshua N. Beilke: University of California, San Francisco, California 94143, USA
Lewis L. Lanier: University of California, San Francisco, California 94143, USA

Nature, 2009, vol. 457, issue 7229, 557-561

Abstract: Abstract In an adaptive immune response, naive T cells proliferate during infection and generate long-lived memory cells that undergo secondary expansion after a repeat encounter with the same pathogen. Although natural killer (NK) cells have traditionally been classified as cells of the innate immune system, they share many similarities with cytotoxic T lymphocytes. We use a mouse model of cytomegalovirus infection to show that, like T cells, NK cells bearing the virus-specific Ly49H receptor proliferate 100-fold in the spleen and 1,000-fold in the liver after infection. After a contraction phase, Ly49H-positive NK cells reside in lymphoid and non-lymphoid organs for several months. These self-renewing ‘memory’ NK cells rapidly degranulate and produce cytokines on reactivation. Adoptive transfer of these NK cells into naive animals followed by viral challenge results in a robust secondary expansion and protective immunity. These findings reveal properties of NK cells that were previously attributed only to cells of the adaptive immune system.

Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1038/nature07665

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