Abstract
Natural killer (NK) cells represent a subpopulation of lymphocytes involved in innate immunity, defined recently as group 1 of innate lymphoid cells (ILCs). NK cells are cytotoxic lymphocytes with a relevant role in the destruction of transformed cells as virus-infected or tumor cells, as well as the regulation of the immune response through cytokine and chemokine production that activates other cellular components of innate and adaptive immunity. In humans, NK cell subsets have been defined according to the level of expression of CD56. Aging differentially affects NK cell subsets and NK cell function. Here, we describe protocols for the delineation of NK cell subsets and the analysis of their functional capacity using multiparametric flow cytometry.
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Acknowledgement
This work was supported by grants PS09/00723 and PI13/02691 (to R.S.) from the Spanish Ministry of Health, SAF2009-09711 and SAF2013-46161-R (to R.T.) from the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain and, PRI09A029 and grants to INPATT research group from the Junta de Extremadura (GRU10104) and from the University of Extremadura (to R.T.) and grants from the Junta de Andalucia (to R.S.) cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). The following reagent was obtained through the AIDS Reagent Program, Division of AIDS, NIAID, NIH: (human rIL-2) from Dr. Maurice Gately, Hoffmann–La Roche Inc.
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Tarazona, R., Campos, C., Pera, A., Sanchez-Correa, B., Solana, R. (2015). Flow Cytometry Analysis of NK Cell Phenotype and Function in Aging. In: Shaw, A. (eds) Immunosenescence. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1343. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2963-4_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2963-4_2
Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-2962-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-2963-4
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