Flow cytometry-based murine NK cell cytotoxicity assay.

Direct killing of diseased cells is a hallmark function of NK cells. This protocol describes a flow-based assay to measure activated murine NK cells' ability to kill target cells . Existing published protocols for assaying NK cell killing utilized the radioactive chromium release assay or were designed for human NK cells. This protocol details specifically an cytotoxicity assay using primary murine NK cells enriched from splenocytes that were activated with poly(I:C). For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Wagner et al. (2020).