A. Parrado et al., LYMPHOKINE-ACTIVATED KILLER CYTOTOXICITY AND LYMPHOCYTE SUBPOPULATIONS IN PATIENTS WITH ACUTE-LEUKEMIA, Leukemia research, 18(11), 1994, pp. 815-822
In this report we investigated lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cytot
oxicity and lymphocyte subpopulations of peripheral blood mononuclear
cells (PBMCs) of patients with acute leukemia in complete remission af
ter chemotherapy or autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT) and
of normal donors. A positive linear correlation was found between the
percentage of spontaneous LAK activity and that of lymphocyte subpopul
ations with phenotypes CD56(+), CD3(-)CD8(+) CD3(-)CD56(+) and CD3(-)C
D57(+) in both groups of patients. A 3-day culture with IL-2 produced
an up-regulation in the expression of the CD25, CD69, and HLA-DR marke
rs proportional to the LAK cytotoxicity levels generated in the cultur
e. Determination of percentages of spontaneous and in vitro generated
LAK activity as well as of the abovementioned phenotypic markers contr
ibute to the analysis of the process of LAK activation in patients wit
h acute leukemia and may also be useful in those cases in which immuno
therapy with IL-2 and/or LAK cells is anticipated.