Donna K Finch, Valerie R Stolberg, John Ferguson, Henrih Alikaj, Mohamed R Kady, Bradley W Richmond, Vasiliy V Polosukhin, Timothy S Blackwell, Lisa McCloskey, Jeffrey L Curtis, Christine M Freeman
RATIONALE: Lung natural killer (NK) cells kill a greater percentage of autologous lung parenchymal cells in COPD than in non-obstructed smokers. To become cytotoxic, NKs require priming, typically by dendritic cells (DC), but whether priming occurs in the lungs in COPD is unknown. METHODS: We used lung tissue and in some cases peripheral blood from patients undergoing clinically-indicated resections to determine in vitro killing of CD326+ lung epithelial cells by isolated lung CD56+ NKs...
April 20, 2018: American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine