Common memory responses of NK cells and CD8+ T cells

Nature has an interesting figure titled: Common memory responses of NK cells and CD8+ T cells.

From "Molecular definition of the identity and activation of natural killer cells"

Using whole-genome microarray data sets of the Immunological Genome Project, we demonstrate a closer transcriptional relationship between NK cells and T cells than between any other leukocytes, distinguished by their shared expression of genes encoding molecules with similar signaling functions. Whereas resting NK cells are known to share expression of a few genes with cytotoxic CD8+ T cells, our transcriptome-wide analysis demonstrates that the commonalities extend to hundreds of genes, many encoding molecules with unknown functions. Resting NK cells demonstrate a 'preprimed' state compared with naive T cells, which allows NK cells to respond more rapidly to viral infection. Collectively, our data provide a global context for known and previously unknown molecular aspects of NK cell identity and function by delineating the genome-wide repertoire of gene expression of NK cells in various states.

The authors are:

Natalie A Bezman,
Charles C Kim,
Joseph C Sun,
Gundula Min-Oo,
Deborah W Hendricks,
Yosuke Kamimura,
J Adam Best,
Ananda W Goldrath,
Lewis L Lanier
& The Immunological Genome Project Consortium

Nature Immunology 13, 1000–1009 (2012) doi:10.1038/ni.2395

I'm Joseph C Kim and I'm fascinated by immunology.