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Functional subsets of mouse natural killer cells
Author(s) -
Hayakawa Yoshihiro,
Huntington Nicholas D.,
Nutt Stephen L.,
Smyth Mark J.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
immunological reviews
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.839
H-Index - 223
eISSN - 1600-065X
pISSN - 0105-2896
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-065x.2006.00454.x
Subject(s) - biology , phenotype , natural killer cell , interleukin 21 , immunology , natural killer t cell , cell , immune system , lymphokine activated killer cell , microbiology and biotechnology , t cell , in vitro , cytotoxic t cell , gene , genetics
Summary: Human natural killer (NK) cells can be divided into two phenotypically distinct functional subsets based on their cell surface expression of CD56 (CD56 bright and CD56 dim ). As mouse NK cells do not express CD56, comparable mouse NK cell subsets have proven difficult to identify. Recently, we have found that mouse NK cells can be subdivided by the expression of CD27. The CD27 hi and CD27 lo mouse NK cell subsets show some intriguing similarities to but also some distinct differences from the human CD56 NK cell subsets in terms of their function and phenotype. Extending our knowledge of mature NK cell heterogeneity between the species will be critical to further our understanding of the pathological role of NK cells in immune responses.