Natural killer (NK) cells are a gatekeeper of the body’s innate defense system against cancers and infections. A growing body literature from us others finds that NK promote anti-cancer immune surveillance, defects in cell development associated with poor clinical prognosis cancers. In preclinical studies, were found to drive tumor regression delay relapse. Because potentially less damaging eas...

introduction: natural killer (nk) cells, of which cd56 is a specific marker, play an important role in host defense against tumors. cancer stem cells, of which aldehyde dehydrogenase isoform 1 (aldh1) is an immunohistochemical marker, are a group of tumorigenic cells which are involved in migration and tumor recurrences. we aimed to evaluate the expression of aldh1 and cd56 in common salivary g...

Natural killer (NK) cells are effector cells of the innate immune system that exert direct cytotoxic functions. Ubiquitously-expressed toll-like receptors (TLRs) have been recognized as one of the major components promoting dendritic cell (DC) maturation, which may induce polarized immune responses beneficial to cancer immunotherapy. TLR-activated NK cells and DCs are prerequisite for robust ac...

Using ascitic fluid or pleural effusion obtained from 13 ovarian or metastatic breast cancer patients, we separated tumor cells from effusion-associated lymphocytes (EAL) with Percoll density centrifugation. Lymphocytes were incubated with recombinant interleukin 2 (IL-2) for 3-4 days and then assessed for tumoricidal activity in a 51chromium-release assay. The IL-2-activated EAL were found to ...

To test the hypothesis that platelet activation contributes to tumor dissemination, we studied metastasis in mice lacking Galphaq, a G protein critical for platelet activation. Loss of platelet activation resulted in a profound diminution in both experimental and spontaneous metastases. Analyses of the distribution of radiolabeled tumor cells demonstrated that platelet function, like fibrinogen...

Natural killer cells are key cells of the innate immune system. Natural killer cell receptor repertoires are diversified by a stochastic expression of killer-cell-immunoglobulin-like receptors and lectin-like receptors such as NKG2 receptors. All individuals harbor a subset of natural killer cells expressing NKG2A, the inhibitory checkpoint receptor for HLA-E. Most neoplastic and normal hematop...