Receptor for transferrin may be a "target" structure for natural killer cells.

Human transferrin receptors detected by monoclonal antibody OKT9 appear to be well expressed on cell types known to provide sensitive targets for natural killer (NK) cells. The possibility that transferrin receptors are recognized by NK effector cells has been investigated by three series of experiments: (i) analysis of the correlation between sensitivity to natural killing and the proportion of transferrin receptor-positive cells in different cell lines, (ii) study of the relationship between levels of transferrin receptor expression in cell lines and their capacity to competitively inhibit recognition and killing of the target cell K562 by NK cells, and (iii) comparison of affinity-purified soluble proteolytic fragments of the transferrin receptor and HLA-A, -B molecules for their ability to inhibit the natural killing effect. The data indicate that the transferrin receptor can provide a "target" structure for NK cells. Because transferrin receptors are ubiquitously expressed on normal and malignant proliferating cells, these observations have interesting implications for the possible function of NK cells in vivo.