engleski

ROLE OF NK AND NKT CELLS IN THE ACTIVATION OF THE INNATE IMMUNE RESPONSE FOLLOWING BURN INJURIES

Introduction: Burn injuries lead to detrimental changes in immune defence and often are accompanied with hard life-threatening opportunistic infections. Natural killer (NK) and NKT (NKT) cells represent lymphocyte subpopulations with important features in innate immune response. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of burn injuries on expression of NK, NKT cells and other lymphocyte subsets. Methods: Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy adult volunteers and from patients with burn injuries were taken and labelled with antibodies by direct or indirect staining and analyzed by flow cytometric analysis. Results: Our findings indicate that the percentage of CD19, double staining CD3/CD4, CD3/CD8 and CD5/CD19 positive cells are significantly decreased in peripheral blood of burned patients, while the percentage of NKT cells has shown significant augmentation. Conclusions: The immunoregulatory functions of NKT cells in burn injuries are marked and we are able to discuss NKT cell based immunotherapeutic strategies.

burns; NK cells; NKT cells; innate

nije evidentirano