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Updated: Jul 3, 2026

Expansion, Purification, and Functional Assessment of Human Peripheral Blood NK Cells
Published on: February 2, 2011
Cutting edge: Priming of NK cells by IL-18
Julie Chaix1, Marlowe S Tessmer, Kasper Hoebe
1Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy, Université de la Méditerranée, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale Unité, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Unité Mixte de Recherche 6102, Marseille, France
Abstract:
Recent evidence suggests that NK cells require priming to display full effector activity. In this study, we demonstrate that IL-18 contributed to this phenomenon. IL-18 signaling-deficient NK cells were found to be unable to secrete IFN-gamma in response to ex vivo stimulation with IL-12. This was not due to a costimulatory role of IL-18, because blocking IL-18 signaling during the ex vivo stimulation with IL-12 did not alter IFN-gamma production by wild-type NK cells. Rather, we demonstrate that IL-18 primes NK cells in vivo to produce IFN-gamma upon subsequent stimulation with IL-12. Importantly, IL-12-induced IFN-gamma transcription by NK cells was comparable in IL-18 signaling-deficient and -sufficient NK cells. This suggests that priming by IL-18 leads to an improved translation of IFN-gamma mRNA. These results reveal a novel type of cooperation between IL-12 and IL-18 that requires the sequential action of these cytokines.
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