Hernan D. Kopcow

TL;DR: Natural killer cells constitute 50–90% of lymphocytes in human uterine decidua in early pregnancy and are compared with the CD56bright and CD56dim peripheral NK cell subsets by microarray analysis, with verification of results by flow cytometry and RT-PCR.

TL;DR: During pregnancy the uterine decidua is populated by large numbers of natural killer cells with a phenotype CD56superbrightCD16−CD9+KIR+ distinct from both subsets of peripheral blood NK cells, and these progenitors produced NK cells when cultured in conditioned medium from decidual stromal cells supplemented with IL-15 and stem cell factor.

TL;DR: dNK formed conjugates and activating immune synapses with 721.221 and K562 cells in which CD2, LFA-1 and actin were polarized toward the contact site, but failed to polarize their microtubule organizing centers and perforin-containing granules to the synapse, accounting for their lack of cytotoxicity.

TL;DR: Exposure to a combination of hypoxia, TGF-β1, and a demethylating agent results in NK cells that express killer cell Ig-like receptors, the dNK cell markers CD9 and CD49a, andA dNK pattern of chemokine receptors, which have potential therapeutic applications for placental disorders associated with altered NK cell biology.

TL;DR: In YTS cells, a CD28 signal is used to polarize the MTOC and cytolytic granules to the NK cell immune synapse by stimulating sustained ERK2 activation, and a role for the CD28/CD80 interaction in cytotoxicity of human peripheral NK cells was established.