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Mass Cytometry Analytical Approaches Reveal Cytokine‐Induced Changes in Natural Killer Cells
Author(s) -
Vendrame Elena,
Fukuyama Julia,
StraussAlbee Dara M.,
Holmes Susan,
Blish Catherine A.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
cytometry part b: clinical cytometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.646
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1552-4957
pISSN - 1552-4949
DOI - 10.1002/cyto.b.21500
Subject(s) - mass cytometry , interleukin 15 , granzyme b , biology , nkg2d , immunology , cd16 , granzyme , perforin , cd8 , cytokine , interleukin 21 , immune system , flow cytometry , immunophenotyping , natural killer cell , cytotoxic t cell , interleukin , phenotype , in vitro , cd3 , biochemistry , gene
Background Natural killer (NK) cells have antiviral and antitumor activity that could be harnessed for the treatment of infections and malignancies. To maintain cell viability and enhance antiviral and antitumor effects, NK cells are frequently treated with cytokines. Here they performed an extensive assessment of the effects of cytokines on the phenotype and function of human NK cells. Methods They used cytometry by time‐of‐flight (CyTOF) to evaluate NK cell repertoire changes after stimulation with interleukin (IL)‐2, IL‐15 or a combination of IL‐12/IL‐15/IL‐18. To analyze the high dimensional CyTOF data, they used several statistical and visualization tools, including viSNE (Visualization of t‐Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding ) , Citrus (Cluster identification, characterization, and regression), correspondence analysis, and the Friedman–Rafsky test. Results All three treatments (IL‐2, IL‐15, and IL‐12/IL‐15/IL‐18) increase expression of CD56 and CD69. The effects of treatment with IL‐2 and IL‐15 are nearly indistinguishable and characterized principally by increased expression of surface markers including CD56, NKp30, NKp44, and increased expression of functional markers, such as perforin, granzyme B, and MIP‐1β. The combination of IL‐12/IL‐15/IL‐18 induces a profound shift in the repertoire structure, decreasing expression of CD16, CD57, CD8, NKp30, NKp46, and NKG2D, and dramatically increasing expression of IFN‐γ. Conclusions CyTOF provides insights into the effects of cytokines on the phenotype and function of NK cells, which could inform future research efforts and approaches to NK cell immunotherapy. There are several analytical approaches to CyTOF data, and the appropriate method should be carefully selected based on which aspect of the dataset is being explored. © 2016 International Clinical Cytometry Society