Natural and activated cytotoxic lymphocytes reactivity to human hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines in hepatocellular carcinoma patients |
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| Authors: | M H Chu S C Chien C P Hu C Y Wang S D Lee Y T Tsai J C Wu S H Han C M Chang |
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| Affiliation: | Graduate Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, National Yang-Ming Medical College, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. |
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| Abstract: | The status of cellular cytotoxic activity in Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) patients was compared to that in normal individuals by testing the cytotoxicity against K562 and five established HCC cell line targets. Natural killer (NK) activity of fresh peripheral blood mononuclear (PBM) cells in HCC patients to K562 cell line target was lower than that in normal donors. NK activity of unstimulated PBM cells from either source was minute against all five HCC cell line targets. Three different activation systems were employed to examine the cellular cytotoxicity of activated PBM cells: (1) conventional mixed lymphocyte culture (MLC), (2) allogeneic mixed lymphocyte tumor culture (MLTC), and (3) lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cell culture. The cytotoxic effects of PBM cells in all three activation conditions were significantly lower in HCC patients than in normal donors (P less than 0.05 to P less than 0.01). These results suggest that, in addition to naturally present NK cells, the degree of in vitro activation of PBM cells may also have decreased in HCC patients. |
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