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Thymic stromal cells support differentiation of natural killer cells from CD34 + bone marrow cells in vitro
Author(s) -
Tjønnfjord Geir E.,
Steen Rita,
Veiby Ole Petter,
Egeland Torstein
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
european journal of haematology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1600-0609
pISSN - 0902-4441
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0609.1995.tb01625.x
Subject(s) - stromal cell , bone marrow , cd34 , interleukin 21 , interleukin 12 , lymphokine activated killer cell , biology , cd3 , immunology , microbiology and biotechnology , stem cell , cytotoxic t cell , cancer research , t cell , in vitro , antigen , immune system , cd8 , biochemistry
Natural killer (NK) cells are CD3 − CD56 + lymphocytes characterized by exhibiting non‐MHC restricted cytotoxicity. A developmental relationship between NK cells and T lymphocytes has been proposed, and, moreover, the thymus has been shown to contain NK cell precursors. In this study we utilized an in vitro assay, devised to study T‐lymphocyte development from bone marrow progenitors, to investigate the ability of thymic stromal cells to support generation of NK cells from CD34 + bone marrow cells. CD34 + cells purified from healthy adults were seeded on adherent thymic stromal cells. The cells emerging after culture were phenotypically characterized by flow cytometry. We show that lymphocytes expressing the phenotypical characteristics of NK cells were generated from CD34 + bone marrow cells, and that these cells represented 1% of the cells recovered from the cultures. Furthermore, this was accomplished without supplement of exogenous interleukin 2 which is required for NK cell differentiation in bone marrow cultures.