Increased Lysis of Stem Cells but Not Their Differentiated Cells by Natural Killer Cells; De-Differentiation or Reprogramming Activates NK Cells

The aims of this study are to demonstrate the increased lysis of stem cells but not their differentiated counterparts by the NK cells and to determine whether disturbance in cell differentiation is a cause for increased sensitivity to NK cell mediated cytotoxicity. Increased cytotoxicity and augmented secretion of IFN-γ were both observed when PBMCs or NK cells were co-incubated with primary UCLA oral squamous carcinoma stem cells (UCLA-OSCSCs) when compared to differentiated UCLA oral squamous carcinoma cells (UCLA-OSCCs). In addition, human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) were also lysed greatly by the NK cells. Moreover, NK cells were found to lyse human Mesenchymal Stem Cells (hMSCs), human dental pulp stem cells (hDPSCs) and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) significantly more than their differentiated counterparts or parental lines from which they were derived. It was also found that inhibition of differentiation or reversion of cells to a less-differentiated phenotype by blocking NFκB or targeted knock down of COX2 in monocytes significantly augmented NK cell cytotoxicity and secretion of IFN-γ. Taken together, these results suggest that stem cells are significant targets of the NK cell cytotoxicity. However, to support differentiation of a subset of tumor or healthy untransformed primary stem cells, NK cells may be required to lyse a number of stem cells and/or those which are either defective or incapable of full differentiation in order to lose their cytotoxic function and gain the ability to secrete cytokines (split anergy). Therefore, patients with cancer may benefit from repeated allogeneic NK cell transplantation for specific elimination of cancer stem cells

The Young Men’s Survey Phase II: Hepatitis B Immunization and Infection Among Young Men Who Have Sex With Men

Objectives. We measured the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) immunization and HBV infection among men aged 23 to 29 years who have sex with men

111-Gb/s transmission over 1040-km field-deployed fiber with 10G/40G neighbors

We demonstrate transmission of a 111-Gb/s coherent polarization-multiplexed return-to-zero differential quadrature phase-shift keying signal over 1040-km field-deployed fiber together with different types of neighboring channels, and with a cascade of 50-GHz reconfigerable optical add-drop multiplexers. Our transmission experiment proves the feasibility of transmitting a 111-Gb/s phase-modulated channel with 10 times 10.7-Gb/s on-off keying neighboring channels on a 50-GHz grid, despite the presence of strong cross-phase modulation