LOW NATURAL-KILLER-CELL FUNCTION IN DISSEMINATED ASPERGILLOSIS

We investigated whether immune deficiency was associated with a fatal case of invasive cerebral aspergillosis due to Aspergillus fumigatus i nfection. The lymphocyte proliferative capacity to T- and B-cell mitog ens was comparable to that of healthy controls. However, the natural k iller (NK) cell activity of the patient was 2-6-fold lower than the ac tivity expressed by a paired control and age-sex matched healthy contr ols (n = 20). No specific abnormalities were evident in the capacity t o transduce either proliferative signals or cytokine (interleukin 2) s ecretory capacity of in vitro activated lymphocytes from the patient. The specific reduction in NK cell activity might either indicate that she was a low NK responder, or that the low NK cell activity was prima rily or secondarily associated with the fungal infection caused by Asp ergillus fumigatus in humans.