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Updated: Aug 19, 2026

Purification and Expansion of Mouse Invariant Natural Killer T Cells for in vitro and in vivo Studies
Published on: February 15, 2021
A subset of natural killer cells achieves self-tolerance without expressing inhibitory receptors specific for
Nadine C Fernandez1, Emmanuel Treiner, Russell E Vance
1Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Cancer Research Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Abstract:
It is widely believed that self-tolerance of natural killer (NK) cells occurs because each NK cell expresses at least one inhibitory receptor specific for a host major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecule. Here we report that some NK cells lack all known self-MHC-specific inhibitory receptors, yet are nevertheless self-tolerant. These NK cells exhibit a normal cell surface phenotype and some functional activity. However, they respond poorly to class I-deficient normal cells, tumor cells, or cross-linking of stimulatory receptors, suggesting that self-tolerance is established by dampening stimulatory signaling. Thus, self-tolerance of NK cells in normal animals can occur independently of MHC-mediated inhibition, and hyporesponsiveness plays a role in self-tolerance of NK cells, as also proposed for B and T cells.
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