Natural Killer Dendritic Cells Enhance Immune Responses Elicited by α-Galactosylceramide-Stimulated Natural Killer T Cells
Figure 3
Cytotoxicity of NKDCs against tumor cells is enhanced by α-GC. (a) Either α-GC (2 μg/mouse) or PBS was i.p. injected into B6 WT mice. Sixteen hours later, splenocytes were stained for flow cytometry. The expression of perforin (upper left panel), NKG2D (upper right panel), FasL (lower left panel), and TRAIL (lower right panel) was evaluated in NKDC (NK1.1+CD11c+TCRβ −), DC (NK1.1−CD11c+TCRβ −), NK (NK1.1+CD11c−TCRβ −), and NKT (NK1.1+TCRβ +CD11c−) populations. The mean values ± SD are shown (–6, , ). (b) Either α-GC (2 μg) or PBS was i.p. injected into B6 WT mice. Sixteen hours later, the total DCs or NKDC-depleted DCs isolated from these mice were used as effector cells for the cytotoxicity assay. The efficiency of depletion is shown in the upper panel. CFSE-labeled YAC-1 tumor cells were used as target cells. Effector cells were co-cultured with 2 × 104 target cells at the indicated ratios. Cytotoxicity at the 27 : 1 E : T ratio is displayed in the lower panel. Cytotoxicity was evaluated by calculating the percentage of 7-AAD+ (dead) cells compared to CFSE+ target cells. The mean values ± SD are shown ().
