<i>Ex vivo</i> cytolytic potential and cytokine secretion are lower in pancreatic and liver NK cells.

Abstract

<p>A) NK cells pooled from five 8-week-old NOD mice were stimulated for four hours with plate-bound anti-Ly49D in the presence of an antibody to CD107a to mark cytolytic granule release. B) Summary of results from 3 experiments. * p<0.05 versus all other groups (unpaired T test). C) NK cells pooled from 8-week-old NOD mice were stimulated with IL-12+IL-18 in the presence brefeldin A for four hours and then stained for intracellular IFNγ. Results are pooled from 4 independent experiments. * The frequency of NK cells producing IFNγ in blood was significantly higher than NK cells in pancreatic (Pan) or inguinal (Ing) lymph nodes (<i>p</i><0.005) and in the liver and pancreas (<i>p</i><0.0001), **% of NK cells expressing IFNγ in both nodes was higher than in the pancreas (<i>p</i><0.001), # % of NK cells expressing IFNγ in the spleen was significantly higher than in pancreas (<i>p</i> = 0.04). NS, there was not a significant difference between the percentage of NK cells expressing IFNγ in the liver and pancreas according to an unpaired T test.</p