P A C T A R TI C L ENatural killer cells: a review of manufacturing and clinical utilityScott A
Koepsell, Jeffrey S
Miller, and David H
McKenna JrNatural killer (NK) cells are a heterogeneousgroup of immune cells that share severalcommon identifying properties
Morphologi-cally, NK cells are large granular lymphocyteswith abundant cytoplasm with azurophilic cytoplasmicgranules
1 Cell surface markers detected by flow cytometryand immunohistochemistry are now standard to identifyNK cells, which are defined by the presence of an isoformof the neural cell adhesion molecule, CD56, and theabsence of CD3, the pan-T-cell marker
2 With thesephenotypic criteria, NK cells are present in significantnumbers, comprising up to 29% of circulating lympho-cytes3 and 5% to 17% of mononuclear cells in hema