¹Toomey, J.A., ¹Shrestha, S., ¹de la Rue, S.A., ¹Gays, F., ¹Robinson, J.H., ²Chrzanowska-Lightowlers, Z., and ¹Brooks, C.G.
The ¹Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and the ²Department of Neurology, The Medical School, Newcastle, NE2 4HH, U.K.

Eur. J. Immunol. 28, 47-56, 1998.
 

Using appropriate conditions natural killer (NK) cells can be cultured from the liver and thymus. These in vitro derived NK cells are phenotypically and functionally indistinguishable from adult NK cells with the exception that they lack measurable expression of all of the Ly49 molecules that can currently be detected with antibodies. Despite this, they preferentially kill tumor cells and blast cells deficient in the expression of major histocompatibility complex class I molecules, although the degree of discrimination is usually weaker than that shown by adult NK cells and varies depending on the particular combination of effector and target cells used. Polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed that although NK cells derived from immature progenitors are severely deficient in the expression of mRNA for Ly49A, B, C, D, G, H, and I they express high levels of Ly49E mRNA, raising the possibility that Ly49E may have an important and special function in the early development of the NK lineage.  Key Data