Role of NK cells in tumour growth and metastasis in beige mice

Although natural killer (NK) cells are thought to give the host a spontaneous resistance against tumours and have been postulated to act in vivo as surveillor cells 1 , definitive data in support of these hypotheses has not been obtained. Recently the beige (bg) mouse, a morphological homologue of t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1980-04, Vol.284 (5757), p.622-624
Main Authors: Talmadge, James E, Meyers, Kenneth M, Prieur, David J, Starkey, Jean R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Humanities and Social Sciences
Immunity, Cellular
Immunity, Innate
Killer Cells, Natural - immunology
letter
Lung Neoplasms - secondary
Melanoma - immunology
Mice
Mice, Mutant Strains - immunology
Models, Biological
multidisciplinary
Neoplasm Metastasis
Neoplasms, Experimental - immunology
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Although natural killer (NK) cells are thought to give the host a spontaneous resistance against tumours and have been postulated to act in vivo as surveillor cells 1 , definitive data in support of these hypotheses has not been obtained. Recently the beige (bg) mouse, a morphological homologue of the human Chediak–Higashi (CH) syndrome 2–4 , was shown to be deficient in NK activity 5 . Specifically, spleen cells of bg mice were demonstrated to be incapable of in vitro natural cytotoxicity against tumour cells 5 . We report here that a tumour line, modified to be sensitive to NK cytotoxicity by in vitro culture, demonstrated in vivo an increased growth rate, faster induction time and an increased metastatic capability in bg compared to control mice. This was not found with a tumour line insensitive to NK activity (without in vitro culture). In vivo activation of NK cells in bg and control mice resulted in a decrease in tumour growth rate and metastatic frequency. These results demonstrate that NK cells have an important function in the host's control of tumour growth and metastasis.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/284622a0