Heterogeneity in the ability of cytotoxic murine NK cell clones to enhance Ig secretion in vitro.

We recently described a panel of cytotoxic murine NK cell clones that also enhanced Ig secretion by B cells activated in an in vitro model of T cell-independent type 2 (TI-2) responses. We employed dextran-conjugated anti-IgD (alphadelta-dex) as a model antigen. Here we study the mechanism of Ig induction by these clones. Addition of the various NK clones to sort-purified B cells stimulated with alphadelta-dex and IL-2 resulted in a markedly heterogeneous increase in Ig secretion, which varied from 3-fold, as mediated by clone PKO 56, to 15-fold, as induced by clone PKO 101. The other NK cells showed intermediate levels of Ig induction. Furthermore, while addition of as few as 0.04% of PKO 101 cells stimulated significant increases and 1% induced near maximum Ig production, a 3% addition of PKO 56 cells was required for significant enhancement of Ig secretion. Supernatant material collected from the NK clones mediated Ig production at levels that mirrored the induction by the corresponding cells. Cytokine analysis showed that while all members of the NK panel produced IFN-gamma only two secreted granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor and that the levels of Ig induction mediated by the NK clones correlated only with their levels of IFN-gamma secretion. Culture of B and NK cells in the presence of anti-IFN-gamma demonstrated that IFN-gamma was the critical cytokine in NK-induced Ig production. These findings establish heterogeneity in the ability of NK cells to increase Ig secretion in vitro and show that NK-produced IFN-gamma is an important factor in determining this heterogeneity.