Human Liver Stem Cells Suppress T-Cell Proliferation, NK Activity, and Dendritic Cell Differentiation

Figure 2

HLSCs used as target for NKs do not elicit NK degranulation. (a) Representative () cytofluorimetric analysis of CD107a expression on NKs pretreated for 24 hours with IL-15 and incubated for 4 hours with MSCs or HLSCs, used as target cells in degranulation assay. CD107a expression was used to quantify cytotoxic granule exocytosis. After 4 hours of cocultivation with MSCs, a small percentage of NKs (about 8%) start to express CD107a; instead the NKs incubated with HLSCs did not degranulate and so did not express CD107a. (b) Early and late apoptosis of HLSCs and MSCs were evaluated after 4-hour incubation with NKs. Data are expressed as mean ± SD of percent variation of apoptotic cells. Results were obtained from 3 independent experiments performed in duplicate. Data were analysed by Student’s -test (unpaired, 2-tailed); MSC cocultured with NKs versus control MSCs.

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