Kumazawa H, Minamino M, Yukawa N, Hess M
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Kansai Medical University, Osaka, Japan.
Cancer Detect Prev. 1995;19(6):494-502.
Natural killer (NK) cells play an important role in many immune functions, including the lysis of tumor cells. In this study, we analyzed the influence of serum from 40 patients with head and neck cancer on NK cell activity using a double-layer agar assay. NK cell activity can be express as the inhibitory effect of NK cells on colony growth of K562 cells in the double-layer agar assay. When serum from cancer patients was added in this assay, we observed the reduction of the inhibitory activity of NK cells, not only of autologous NK cells but also of allogeneic NK cells in 24 out of 40 patients. In addition, we compared the TNM staging and survival rate between the reduction group and no-reduction group of NK cell activity. These results suggest that the serum of some patients with head and neck cancer may be an inhibitory factor on NK cell activity and may be involved in host resistance to tumor growth.
自然杀伤（NK）细胞在包括肿瘤细胞裂解在内的许多免疫功能中发挥着重要作用。在本研究中，我们使用双层琼脂试验分析了40例头颈癌患者的血清对NK细胞活性的影响。在双层琼脂试验中，NK细胞活性可以表示为NK细胞对K562细胞集落生长的抑制作用。当在该试验中加入癌症患者的血清时，我们观察到40例患者中有24例的NK细胞抑制活性降低，不仅自体NK细胞，异体NK细胞也是如此。此外，我们比较了NK细胞活性降低组和未降低组之间的TNM分期和生存率。这些结果表明，一些头颈癌患者的血清可能是NK细胞活性的抑制因子，可能参与宿主对肿瘤生长的抵抗。
