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Updated: Jun 27, 2026
Expansion, Purification, and Functional Assessment of Human Peripheral Blood NK Cells
Published on: February 2, 2011
[Expansion of human natural killer cells ex vivo]
Qing-Sheng Huang1, Qi Li, Yong Huang
1Key Laboratory for Space Biosciences & Biotechnology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China. qingshengh@yahoo.com.cn
Aim:
To obtain sufficient numbers of pure and activated human primary NK cells for potential clinical application.
Methods:
PBMC based ex vivo expansion of natural killer cells was set up. The expansion was initiated by co-culture of PBMC and stimulator cells (irradiate genetic modified K562 cells) in RPMI1640 medium with 1 000 U/mL IL-2. Genetic modified K562 cells 'K562D3' were prepared by expressing IL-15, 4-1BBL and IL-18 on K562 cell membrane.
Results:
An average of 500 fold expansion of CD56(+)CD3(-) cells was observed after 3 weeks of co-culture. The NK cells population could reach 93% after expansion, comparing with 7% before expansion. The expanded NK cells lysed 95% of K562 targets in a 5:1 effector to target ratio. IL-15/4-1BBL bound K562 stimulatory cells could expand same fold NK cells as K562D3, but the cytotoxicity of NK cells expanded by 'K562D3' was 10% higher.
Conclusion:
The described method is a simple and efficient way for the expansion of human NK cells.
