Skip to main content
Download PDF

Volume 12 Supplement 1

Melanoma Bridge 2013: Poster and Oral Presentations

Enrichment of KIR+CD57+ highly cytotoxic NK cells in sentinel lymph nodes of melanoma patients

Journal of Translational Medicine volume 12, Article number: P10 (2014) Cite this article

Background

NK cells contribute to melanoma cell recognition and anti-tumor immunity, which is traditionally analyzed using human peripheral blood NK cells. An important checkpoint in the progression of malignant melanoma is the metastasis to lymph nodes.

Materials and methods

To investigate the role of lymph node NK cells in disease progression, we analyzed frequency, phenotype and functions of NK cells purified from either tumor infiltrated lymph nodes or tumor-free ipsilateral lymph nodes of the same patients. Lymph node NK cells were compared to peripheral blood NK cells from either melanoma patients or healthy donors.

Results

The data showed an expansion of CD56dimCD57+CD69+CCR7+KIR+ NK cells in tumor infiltrated lymph nodes. This phenotype corresponds to a recently described fully mature and highly cytotoxic NK cell population, and indeed we found that these lymph node NK cells displayed robust anti-tumor activity against autologous melanoma cells. The NK cells trafficking from periphery to the tumor draining lymph nodes have been investigated and the chemokines pattern identified. Moreover, the presence of a high proportion of KIR+CD57+CD56dim in the infiltrated lymph nodes was associated with an improved patients’ survival.

Conclusions

Our data suggest that NK cells from tumor infiltrated lymph nodes are attractive candidates to improve current NK cell-based immunotherapy of melanoma.

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine “G. Salvatore”, University of Catanzaro ‘Magna Graecia’, Catanzaro, Italy

    Talib Hassan Ali, Elio Gulletta, Caterina Ietto, Cinzia Garofalo & Ennio Carbone

  2. Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, University of Thi-Qar, Nasseriah, Iraq

    Talib Hassan Ali

  3. Department of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences, University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy

    Simona Pisanti, Elena Ciaglia & Maurizio Bifulco

  4. Human Tumors Immunobiology Unit, Dept. of Experimental Oncology and Molecular Medicine (R.M. and A.A.), and Melanoma and Sarcoma Unit, Dept. of Surgery (M.S.), Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy

    Roberta Mortarini, Andrea Anichini & Mario Santinami

  5. Istituto di Endocrinologia e Oncologia Sperimentale, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (IEOS-CNR), Naples, Italy

    Mario Galgani & Giuseppe Matarese

  6. Department of Medicine, University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy

    Giuseppe Matarese

  7. Department of Surgery, Immunology and Pathology, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Soldano Ferrone

  8. Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Cambridge Clinical School, Cambridge, UK

    Francesco Colucci

  9. Lab. of Molecular Immunology, Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Genova, Genova, Italy

    Alessandro Moretta

  10. Department of Microbiology Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

    Klas Kärre & Ennio Carbone

Authors
  1. Talib Hassan Ali
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Simona Pisanti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Elena Ciaglia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Roberta Mortarini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Andrea Anichini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Mario Santinami
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Elio Gulletta
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Caterina Ietto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Mario Galgani
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Cinzia Garofalo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Giuseppe Matarese
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Maurizio Bifulco
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Soldano Ferrone
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. Francesco Colucci
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  15. Alessandro Moretta
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  16. Klas Kärre
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  17. Ennio Carbone
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ennio Carbone.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ali, T.H., Pisanti, S., Ciaglia, E. et al. Enrichment of KIR+CD57+ highly cytotoxic NK cells in sentinel lymph nodes of melanoma patients. J Transl Med 12, P10 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5876-12-S1-P10

Download citation

Keywords

  • Lymph Node
  • Melanoma
  • Sentinel Lymph Node
  • Melanoma Cell
  • Melanoma Patient

Journal of Translational Medicine

ISSN: 1479-5876

Contact us