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Updated: Jul 13, 2025

Measurement of Natural Killer Cell-Mediated Cytotoxicity and Migration in the Context of Hepatic Tumor Cells
Published on: February 22, 2020
Effector and cytolytic function of natural killer cells in anticancer immunity
Surojit Karmakar1, Amrita Mishra1, Pradipta Pal1
1Laboratory of Autoimmunity and Tolerance, National Centre for Cell Science, Ganeshkhind, Pune, MH-411007, India.
Abstract:
Adaptive immune cells play an important role in mounting antigen-specific antitumor immunity. The contribution of innate immune cells such as monocytes, macrophages, natural killer (NK) cells, dendritic cells, and gamma-delta T cells is well studied in cancer immunology. NK cells are innate lymphoid cells that show effector and regulatory function in a contact-dependent and contact-independent manner. The cytotoxic function of NK cells plays an important role in killing the infected and transformed host cells and controlling infection and tumor growth. However, several studies have also ascribed the role of NK cells in inducing pathophysiology in autoimmune diseases, promoting immune tolerance in the uterus, and antitumor function in the tumor microenvironment. We discuss the fundamentals of NK cell biology, its distribution in different organs, cellular and molecular interactions, and its cytotoxic and noncytotoxic functions in cancer biology. We also highlight the use of NK cell-based adoptive cellular therapy in cancer.
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