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Blood, 1 July 2005, Vol. 106, No. 1, pp. 158-166. Prepublished online as a Blood First Edition Paper on March 8, 2005; DOI 10.1182/blood-2004-08-3232. This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 2004-08-3232v1 106/1/158    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Rights and Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Perez, S. A. Articles by Papamichail, M. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Perez, S. A. Articles by Papamichail, M. Related Collections Immunobiology Signal Transduction Immunotherapy Social Bookmarking                   What's this?  Previous Article  |  Table of Contents  |  Next Article  IMMUNOBIOLOGY A potential role for hydrocortisone in the positive regulation of IL-15–activated NK-cell proliferation and survival Sonia A. Perez, Louisa G. Mahaira, Fillio J. Demirtzoglou, Panagiota A. Sotiropoulou, Panayotis Ioannidis, Eleni G. Iliopoulou, Angelos D. Gritzapis, Nectaria N. Sotiriadou, Constantin N. Baxevanis, and Michael Papamichail From the Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Center, Saint Savas Hospital, Athens, Greece. Although glucocorticoids (GCs) have been described as acting mainly as anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive drugs, they may also positively influence the immune system. In the present study, we demonstrate for the first time that hydrocortisone (HC), in synergy with interleukin-15 (IL-15), induces a dramatic increase in the expansion of peripheral blood–derived CD56+ cells, favoring the preferential outgrowth of classical natural killer (CD56+CD3– NK) over CD56+CD3+ natural killer T (NKT) cells. HC plus IL-15–driven CD56+ cells exhibited an increased potential for cytokine production with no impairment in their NK- and lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) activities. Elevated levels of GC-induced leucine zipper protein (GILZ) messenger RNA (mRNA) were detected in both NK and NKT cells cultured with HC and IL-15, in comparison to IL-15 alone. Phosphorylation status of signal transducer and activator of transcription 5 (STAT5) was not affected by the presence of HC in either of the populations. On the contrary, HC differentially affected the IL-2/IL-15R - and -chain surface expression and the phosphorylation levels of extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2) in IL-15–activated NK and NKT cells. Our data ascribe a novel role to GCs on mature NK-cell expansion and function and open new perspectives for their use in cellular adoptive cancer immunotherapy. CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this? This article has been cited by other articles: C. Vitale, F. Cottalasso, E. Montaldo, L. Moretta, and M. C. Mingari Methylprednisolone induces preferential and rapid differentiation of CD34+ cord blood precursors toward NK cells Int. Immunol., April 1, 2008; 20(4): 565 - 575. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] S. A. Perez, L. G. Mahaira, P. A. Sotiropoulou, A. D. Gritzapis, E. G. Iliopoulou, D. K. Niarchos, N. T. Cacoullos, Y. G. Kavalakis, A. I. Antsaklis, N. N. Sotiriadou, et al. Effect of IL-21 on NK cells derived from different umbilical cord blood populations Int. Immunol., January 1, 2006; 18(1): 49 - 58. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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