Chemokine Receptor Expression on Normal Blood CD56+ NK-Cells Elucidates Cell Partners That Comigrate during the Innate and Adaptive Immune Responses and Identifies a Transitional NK-Cell Population

Studies of chemokine receptors (ckr) in natural killer- (nk-) cells have already been published,but only a few gave detailed information on its differential expression on blood nk-cell subsets. we report on the expression of the inflammatory and homeostatic ckr on normal blood cd56 + low cd16+ and cd56 + high cd16 - / + low nk-cells. conventional cd56 + low and cd56 + high nk-cells present in the normal pb do express ckr for inflammatory cytokines,although with different patterns cd56 + low nk-cells are mainly cxcr1/cxcr2+ and cxcr3/ccr5-/+,whereas mostly cd56 + high nk-cells are cxcr1/cxcr2- and cxcr3/ccr5+. both nk-cell subsets have variable cxcr4 expression and are ccr4- and ccr6-. the ckr repertoire of the cd56 + low nk-cells approaches to that of neutrophils,whereas the ckr repertoire of the cd56 + high nk-cells mimics that of th1+ t cells,suggesting that these cells are prepared to migrate into inflamed tissues at different phases of the immune response. in addition,we describe a subpopulation of nk-cells with intermediate levels of cd56 expression,which we named cd56 + int nk-cells. these nk-cells are cxcr3/ccr5+,they have intermediate levels of expression of cd16,cd62l,cd94,and cd122,and they are cd57- and cd158a-. in view of their phenotypic features,we hypothesize that they correspond to a transitional stage,between the well-known cd56 + high and cd56 + low nk-cells populations. © 2015 margarida lima et al.