Immune characterization of an individual with an exceptionally high natural killer T cell frequency and her immediate family

AC Chan; L Serwecinska; A Cochrane; LC Harrison; DI Godfrey; SP Berzins

Journal article

Immune characterization of an individual with an exceptionally high natural killer T cell frequency and her immediate family

AC Chan, L Serwecinska, A Cochrane, LC Harrison, DI Godfrey, SP Berzins

CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL IMMUNOLOGY | WILEY | Published : 2009

DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2249.2009.03888.x

Abstract

Natural killer T cells (NKT) are a regulatory subset of T lymphocytes whose frequency in peripheral blood is highly variable within the human population. Lower than normal NKT frequencies are associated with increased predisposition to a number of diseases, including type 1 diabetes and some forms of cancer, raising the possibility that an increased frequency may be protective. However, there is little or no understanding of how high NKT frequencies arise or, most importantly, whether the potential exists to boost and maintain NKT levels for therapeutic advantage. Here, we provide a detailed functional and phenotypic characterization of the NKT compartment of a human donor with NKT levels ap..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Dale Godfrey Author Microbiology and Immunology

Stuart Berzins Author Microbiology and Immunology

Related Projects (3)

Immune regulation, effector function and therapy

The immune system plays an important role in protecting the host from viral and bacterial infections, and inhibits cancer onset and progress..

The development of immune NKT cells in humans.

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2007 PROGRAM GRANT - (IMMUNE REGULATION, EFFECTOR FUNCTION AND HUMAN IMMUNOTHERAPY)

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Grants

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)

Funding Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the following support: S. P. B. is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Career Development Award and an NHMRC Project grant (no. 454363); D. I. G. is supported by an NHMRC Program grant (no. 251608, renewed as no. 454569) and an NHMRC Research Fellowship. L. C. H. is an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow supported by an NHMRC Program grant. We acknowledge the generous assistance of the research team involved in the INIT 2 project at The Burnet Clinical Research Unit and The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. We also thank 'donor A' and her family for their willingness to participate in this research.