Proteome analysis of distinct developmental stages of human natural killer (NK) cells

The recent Natural Killer (NK) cell maturation model postulates that CD34(+) hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) first develop into CD56(bright) NK cells, then into CD56(dim)CD57(-) and finally into terminally maturated CD56(dim)CD57(+). The molecular mechanisms of human NK cell differentiation and maturation however are incompletely characterized. Here we present a proteome analysis of distinct developmental stages of human primary NK cells, isolated from healthy human blood donors. Peptide sequencing was used to comparatively analyze CD56(bright) NK cells versus CD56(dim) NK cells and CD56(dim)CD57(-) NK cells versus CD56(dim)CD57(+) NK cells and revealed distinct protein signatures for all of these subsets. Quantitative data for about 3400 proteins were obtained and support the current differentiation model. Furthermore, 11 donor-independently, but developmental stage specifically regulated proteins so far undescribed in NK cells were revealed, which may contribute to NK cell development and may elucidate a molecular source for NK cell effector functions. Among those proteins, S100A4 (Calvasculin) and S100A6 (Calcyclin) were selected to study their dynamic subcellular localization. Upon activation of human primary NK cells, both proteins are recruited into the immune synapse (NKIS), where they colocalize with myosin IIa.