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Prager I, Liesche C, van Ooijen H, Urlaub D, Verron Q, Sandström N, Fasbender F, Claus M, Eils R, Beaudouin J, Önfelt B, Watzl C
J. Exp. Med. 216 (9) 2113-2127 [2019-09-02; online 2019-07-03]
NK cells eliminate virus-infected and tumor cells by releasing cytotoxic granules containing granzyme B (GrzB) or by engaging death receptors that initiate caspase cascades. The orchestrated interplay between both cell death pathways remains poorly defined. Here we simultaneously measure the activities of GrzB and caspase-8 in tumor cells upon contact with human NK cells. We observed that NK cells switch from inducing a fast GrzB-mediated cell death in their first killing events to a slow death receptor-mediated killing during subsequent tumor cell encounters. Target cell contact reduced intracellular GrzB and perforin and increased surface-CD95L in NK cells over time, showing how the switch in cytotoxicity pathways is controlled. Without perforin, NK cells were unable to perform GrzB-mediated serial killing and only killed once via death receptors. In contrast, the absence of CD95 on tumor targets did not impair GrzB-mediated serial killing. This demonstrates that GrzB and death receptor-mediated cytotoxicity are differentially regulated during NK cell serial killing.
PubMed 31270246
DOI 10.1084/jem.20181454
Crossref 10.1084/jem.20181454
pmc: PMC6719417
pii: jem.20181454