Selective growth of natural cytotoxic but not natural killer effector cells in interleukin-3

• Published in: Nature (London) 1983-12, Vol.306 (5945), p.788-791
• Main Authors: Djeu, Julie Y, Lanza, Emanuela, Pastore, Simonetta, Hapel, Andrew J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Antigens, Surface - analysis; Cells, Cultured; Cytotoxicity, Immunologic - drug effects; Humanities and Social Sciences; Interferons - pharmacology; Interleukin-3; Killer Cells, Natural - immunology; Killer Cells, Natural - physiology; letter; Lymphokines - physiology; Mice; multidisciplinary; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Spleen - cytology; T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic - immunology; T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic - physiology
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/306788a0

Interleukin-3 (IL-3) can promote the proliferation of certain classes of lymphocytes distinct from those that are dependent on interleukin-2 (IL-2) for growth 1–5 . Culture conditions for its production are identical to those required for IL-2 and in both cases the producer cell appears to be Thy 1.2 + , Lyt1 + , Lyt2 − (refs 1–5). However, unlike the IL-2 responder cells, the cells that proliferate in IL-3 are generally Lyt2 − (ref. 1). Here we have measured the natural cytotoxic (NC) activity as well as natural killer (NK) cell activity of the IL-3-dependent cells. Both of these activities are part of a repertoire of spontaneous cytotoxic functions found in mice that might serve in early defence against infectious agents or immunosurveillance against tumours in vivo 6–12 . We report a new finding that IL-3 selectively maintains NC cells but not NK cells in culture. This is in contrast to the known requirement for IL-2 in NK cell growth 13 . This provides a means of isolating NC cells from NK cells in the mouse as an initial step in the study of the relative contribution of these two cell types in tumour immunity.