Murine Cytomegalovirus Is Regulated by a Discrete Subset of Natural Killer Cells Reactive with Monoclonal Antibody to Ly49h

Daniels, Keith A.; Devora, Gene; Lai, Wayne C.; O'Donnell, Carey L.; Bennett, Michael; Welsh, Raymond M.

Additional experiments were done to determine whether there was enrichment for IFN-␥ production in NK cells expressing other Ly49 antigens. Fig. 5 shows that similar proportions of Ly49D ϩ and Ly49D Ϫ cells made IFN-␥ and similar proportions of Ly49G2 ϩ and Ly49G2 Ϫ cells made IFN-␥, indicating no enrichment in IFN-␥ production in cells expressing those Ly49 markers. In other experiments we tested Ly49A ϩ and A Ϫ cells, finding no proportional differences in those populations either (data not shown). Fig. 5 also shows that splenocytes staining with mAb 5E6 (Ly49C/I) produced similar levels of IFN-␥ as those not expressing that marker, but in the PECs, 5E6 ϩ cells tend to have increased proportions of IFN-␥-producing cells. Over 80% of the IFN-␥-producing splenocytes and PECs in this experiment expressed reactivity with the 1F8 mAb. These experiments suggest that the Ly49H subset may be particularly effective at making IFN-␥ after MCMV infection.