Morphofunctional characterization of lymphokine activated killer (LAK) cells in vitro.

In order to characterize the cellular subsets of peripheral blood lymphocytes cultured with interleukin-2 (IL-2), a study in vitro was developed. Both conditioned medium from PHA-stimulated lymphocytes and recombinant IL-2 (rIL-2) were employed. The following aspects were examined: the morphological pattern of IL-2 stimulated lymphocytes; the ability of these cells to recognize, bind, attack and destroy tumoral lines; their cytochemical and immunological (CD) feature. The results suggest that, in our experimental conditions, these cells showed a characteristic "hand mirror shape", cytotoxic antitumor activity, lack of hydrolytic enzymes and CD3+, CD4+ phenotype.