Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 7, 2026

Isolation and Expansion of Cytotoxic Cytokine-induced Killer T Cells for Cancer Treatment
Published on: January 24, 2020
Irradiated KHYG-1 retains cytotoxicity: potential for adoptive immunotherapy with a natural killer cell line
G Suck1, D R Branch, A Keating
1Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology, rincess Margaret Hospital/Ontario Cancer Institute, Toronto, Canada. garnet.suck@uhn.on.ca
Purpose:
To evaluate gamma-irradiation on KHYG-1, a highly cytotoxic natural killer (NK) cell line and potential candidate for cancer immunotherapy.
Methods And Materials:
The NK cell line KHYG-1 was irradiated at 1 gray (Gy) to 50 Gy with gamma-irradiation, and evaluated for cell proliferation, cell survival, and cytotoxicity against tumor targets.
Results:
We showed that a dose of at least 10 Gy was sufficient to inhibit proliferation of KHYG-1 within the first day but not its cytolytic activity. While 50 Gy had an apoptotic effect in the first hours after irradiation, the killing of K562 and HL60 targets was not different from non-irradiated cells but was reduced for the Ph + myeloid leukemia lines, EM-2 and EM-3.
Conclusions:
gamma-irradiation (at least 10 Gy) of KHYG-1 inhibits cell proliferation but does not diminish its enhanced cytolytic activity against several tumor targets. This study suggests that KHYG-1 may be a feasible immunotherapeutic agent in the treatment of cancers.
Related Concept Videos
Cytotoxic T Cells-mediated Immune Response
Immunological surveillance is the ability of immune cells to monitor and eliminate infected cells with intracellular pathogens, neoplastically transformed cells, and cells with non-self antigens. Cytotoxic T cells and NK...
Cells of the Innate Immune Response
Phagocytes
Phagocytes police the peripheral tissues by removing cellular debris and responding to the invasion of foreign substances or pathogens. Many phagocytes attack and remove microorganisms even before lymphocytes detect them. The human body has two general...
Tumor Immunotherapy
