Phenotypic characterization of NK cells in human Renal Cell Carcinoma

XIMENA LUCÍA RAFFO IRAOLAGOITIA; FLORENCIA SECCHIARI; FERNANDO PABLO SECIN ; NICOLÁS IGNACIO TORRES; MERCEDES BEATRIZ FUERTES; SOL YANEL NUÑEZ; ROMINA ELIZABETH ARAYA; CAROLINA INÉS DOMAICA; ANDREA ZIBLAT; RAÚL GERMÁN SPALLANZANI; JESSICA MARIEL SIERRA; AGUSTÍN ROVEGNO ; NORBERTO WALTER ZWIRNER

Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires

Congreso; LXIV Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Inmunología (SAI); 2016

Sociedad Argentina de Inmunología (SAI)

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is among the 10 most frequent cancers in the western world. Surgery is the main treatment as kidney cancers are resistant to radiation and chemotherapy. Natural killer (NK) cells play a key role in tumor immune surveillance through a cytotoxic activity and the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines that promote an adaptive antitumor response. Several activating and inhibitory receptors regulate NK cells effector functions. In RCC patients it was observed a positive correlation between the percentage of tumor infiltrating NK cells (TINKs) and a better prognosis. Moreover, the frequency of TINKs and of NK cells in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBNKs) inversely correlated with tumor grade, suggesting the existence of a tumor immunosuppressive effect on NK cells. However, the phenotype of NK cells in RCC remains unexplored. Therefore, the aim of this work was to phenotypically characterize TINKs and PBNKs of RCC patients. Flow cytometry analysis revealed a higher percentage of positive cells and/or expression of CD25, CD69, ILT2 (p