Department of Biomedical Engineering, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.
Cancer Center, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA.
J Immunol Methods. 2021 Apr;491:112992. doi: 10.1016/j.jim.2021.112992. Epub 2021 Feb 9.
Natural Killer (NK) cells are lymphocytes that are the first line of defense against malignantly transformed cells, virally infected cells and other stressed cell types. To study the cytolytic function of NK cells in vitro, a cytotoxicity assay is normally conducted against a target cancerous cell line. Current assay methods are typically performed in mixed 2D cocultures with destructive endpoints and low throughput, thereby limiting the scale, time-resolution, and relevance of the assay to in vivo conditions. Here, we evaluated a novel, non-invasive, quantitative image-based cytometry (qIBC) assay for detection of NK-mediated killing of target cells in 2D and 3D environments in vitro and compared its performance to two common flow cytometry- and fluorescence-based cytotoxicity assays. Similar to the other methods evaluated, the qIBC assay allowed for reproducible detection of target cell killing across a range of effector-to-target ratios with reduced variability. The qIBC assay also allowed for detection of NK cytolysis in 3D spheroids, which enabled scalable measurements of cell cytotoxicity in 3D models. Our findings suggest that quantitative image-based cytometry would be suitable for rapid, high-throughput screening of NK cytolysis in vitro, including in quasi-3D structures that model tissue environments in vivo.
自然杀伤 (NK) 细胞是淋巴细胞,是抵御恶性转化细胞、病毒感染细胞和其他应激细胞类型的第一道防线。为了在体外研究 NK 细胞的细胞溶解功能,通常针对靶癌细胞系进行细胞毒性测定。目前的测定方法通常在具有破坏性终点和低通量的混合 2D 共培养物中进行,从而限制了测定的规模、时间分辨率和与体内条件的相关性。在这里,我们评估了一种新型的、非侵入性的、基于定量图像的细胞计数 (qIBC) 测定法,用于检测体外 2D 和 3D 环境中 NK 介导的靶细胞杀伤,并将其性能与两种常见的流式细胞术和荧光基于细胞毒性测定法进行了比较。与评估的其他方法相似,qIBC 测定法允许在效应细胞与靶细胞比例范围内以可重复的方式检测靶细胞杀伤,并且变异性降低。qIBC 测定法还允许检测 3D 球体中的 NK 细胞溶解,从而能够在 3D 模型中进行可扩展的细胞毒性测量。我们的研究结果表明,定量图像细胞计数法适合于快速、高通量筛选体外 NK 细胞溶解,包括模拟体内组织环境的准 3D 结构。