Multipronged immunotherapies that activate both T cells and natural killer (NK) cells may result in more robust and durable anticancer responses. The successful outcome of dendritic cell (DC)-based vaccination therapy involves a hitherto unrecognized role for NK cells. Combinatorial regimens that enhance the contribution of NK cells to the anticancer immune response may therefore improve clinic...

background: uterine natural killer (unk) cells are the most abundant leukocytes in pre-implantation endometrium and early pregnancy deciduas in humans and rodents. they are associated with structural changes in maternal spiral arteries but regulation of their re-cruitment and activation is incompletely understood. the major subpopulation of unk cells in humans expresses cd56, the neural cell ad...

What do they do? NK cells are equipped with cytotoxic granules that contain the arsenal of cytotoxic molecules used in killing virally infected and cancerous cells. They recognize their targets, in part, by means of activating signals that are only just beginning to be identified, but also by detecting cells that are deficient in cell-surface class I molecules of the major histocompatibility co...

The Src homology (SH) 2/SH3 domain-containing protein Grb2 and the oncoprotein Shc have been implicated in a highly conserved mechanism that regulates p21 ras activation. We investigated the involvement of these adaptor proteins in the signaling pathway induced by CD16 or interleukin (IL) 2R triggering in human natural killer (NK) cells. Both p46 and p52 forms of Shc were rapidly and transientl...

Introduction The activation of natural killer cells (NK) by their KIR (killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor) is a potent defense system tumor cells. In this thesis we want to investigate the profile 16 inhibiting and activating KIRs in bloodserum patients with head neck squamous-cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Furthermore, calculate correlation between KIR-status overall survival (OS) HNSCC-patients.