Phenotypic analysis of NK cells from patients with acute leukemia shows abnormal NCRdull expression.
NK cells were cultured as described in “Materials and methods” and then analyzed by flow cytometry for expression of the indicated molecules. Blank areas correspond to isotype-matched negative controls. The first row corresponds to the analysis of NK cells from a representative healthy donor, whereas the 4 other rows show the phenotype of NK cells obtained from patients with AML (NK-AML cells) at diagnosis (before chemotherapy). All phenotypes were controlled at least 3 times during the culture period (from 2 to 7 weeks), and no major changes in NK phenotypes were observed. The 4 examples of NK-AML are representative of the 18 patients analyzed.
