| Popis: |
Interleukin-2 (IL-2) is known to activate cytotoxic effector cells which are able to lyse fresh solid tumor cells [1, 2] as well as fresh noncultured leukemia cells [3–6]. These activated cytotoxic effector cells, known as lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells, comprise mainly activated natural killer (NK) cells (CD3−/CD56+) and a small number of major histocompatibility complex(MHC)-unrestricted cytotoxic T-cells (CD3+/CD56+) that kill their targets without MHC restriction [7–10]. Human leukemia cells possess a distinct LAK cell susceptibility which varies considerably in different subtypes of leukemia. The present study investigated the susceptibility of human leukemia cells to allogeneic LAK cells from normal donors and to autologous LAK cells from patients in complete remission (CR). In addition, we studied whether in vitro exposure of leukemic cells to cytotoxic agents, relevant for leukemia treatment, can augment the susceptibility of fresh noncultured leukemia cells to LAK cell lysis and compared the susceptibility of leukemia cells before and after in vivo exposure to cytotoxic drugs during induction chemotherapy. |
