ArticleBMC immunology2021
Blood CD3-(CD56 or 16)+ natural killer cell distributions are heterogeneous in healthy adults and suppressed by azathioprine in patients with ANCA-associated vasculitides.
Article in BMC immunology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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10 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Comprehensive immune profiling identifies alterations in adaptive and innate immune responses in granulomatosis with polyangiitis patients in remission.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Neonatal-Onset Chronic Granulomatous Disease Presenting With Recurrent Culture-Negative Meningitis: A Case Report and Diagnostic Considerations.Case reports in immunology · 2026Article
- Article
- Characterization of ex vivo expanded natural killer cells for cancer immunotherapy.Immunology and cell biology · 2025Article
- Biological aging of different blood cell types.GeroScience · 2025Article
- Compartment-Specific NK Cell Phenotypes Reveal Distinct Maturation and Activation States in Inflammatory Arthritis.Journal of innate immunity · 2025Article
- Low CD4 + T cell count is related to specific anti-nuclear antibodies, IFNα protein positivity and disease activity in systemic lupus erythematosus pregnancy.Arthritis research & therapy · 2024Article
- A critical threshold of MCM10 is required to maintain genome stability during differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells into natural killer cells.Open biology · 2024Article
- NKG2D Natural Killer Cell Receptor-A Short Description and Potential Clinical Applications.Cells · 2021Review
- Natural Killer Cells in Anti-Neutrophil Cytoplasmic Antibody-Associated Vasculitis - A Review of the Literature.Frontiers in immunology · 2021Review
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7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
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Abstract
backgroundCytotoxic Natural Killer (NK) cells are increasingly recognized as a powerful tool to induce targeted cell death in cancer and autoimmune diseases. Still, basic blood NK cell parameters are poorly defined. The aims of this study were 1) to establish reference values of NK cell counts and percentages in healthy adults; 2) to describe these parameters in the prototype autoimmune disease group ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV); and 3) to investigate whether NK cell counts and percentages may be used as activity biomarkers in the care of AAV patients, as suggested by a preceding study.
methodsCD3-(CD56 or 16)+ NK cell counts and percentages were determined in 120 healthy adults. Lymphocyte subset and clinical data from two German vasculitis centers were analyzed retrospectively (in total 407 measurements, including 201/49/157 measurements from 64/16/39 patients with granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) and eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA), respectively).
resultsCD3-(CD56 or 16)+ NK cell counts and percentages in healthy adults were highly variable, not Gaussian distributed and independent of age and sex. NK cell percentages ranged from 1.9 to 37.9% of lymphocytes, and were significantly more dispersed in AAV (0.3 to 57.6%), while the median percentage was not different between AAV and healthy donors. In contrast, median NK cell counts were significantly lower in AAV compared to healthy donors. Sub-group analyses revealed that NK cell counts were low independent of AAV entity and disease activity. Azathioprine therapy was associated with significantly lower NK cell counts and percentages compared to non-azathioprine therapies. In 13.6% of azathioprine-treated patients, percentages were </= 1% which may be interpreted as temporary NK cell deficiency. NK cell counts and percentages could not separate active from inactive AAV.
conclusionsNK cell counts and percentages in blood are heterogeneous and can presently not be recommended as biomarker in clinical care of AAV patients. Azathioprine treatment was associated with significantly low NK cells. These findings may be relevant for the development of drugs that aim at exploiting NK cell cytotoxicity and may help to identify patients at risk to develop malignant or infectious co-morbidities.
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