PGC-1α-Dependent Mitochondrial Adaptation Is Necessary to Sustain IL-2-Induced Activities in Human NK Cells

Figure 2

IL-2 induces an increase in mitochondrial mass, mitochondrial membrane potential, and PGC-1α expression in human NK cells. NK cells were cultured in the presence of 50 IU/mL (control) or 2000 IU/mL IL-2 for 48 or 72 h and then analyzed by flow cytometry to measure mitochondrial mass (a) or mitochondrial membrane potential (b) as indicated in Materials and Methods. Data are shown as the mean of fluorescence intensity in cells and normalized against controls. Results are mean ± SE from 7 independent experiments (). (c) PGC-1α mRNA expression was determined by qRT-PCR. Relative expression was normalized with control NK cells, and results show the mean of 5 independent experiments ± SE ().

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