TGF‐β affects development and differentiation of human natural killer cell subsets

Abstract

Human peripheral blood NK cells may be divided into two main subsets: CD56^brightCD16⁻ and CD56^dimCD16⁺. Since TGF‐β is known to influence the development of many leukocyte lineages, its effects on NK cell differentiation either from human CD34⁺Lin⁻ hematopoietic progenitor/stem cells in vitro or from peripheral blood NK cells were investigated. TGF‐β represses development of NK cells from CD34⁺ progenitors and inhibits differentiation of CD16⁺ NK cells. Moreover, TGF‐β also results in conversion of a minor fraction of CD56^brightCD16⁺ cells found in peripheral blood into CD56^brightCD16⁻ cells, highlighting a possible role of the former as a developmental intermediate and of TGF‐β in influencing the genesis of NK subsets found in blood.