Natural killer (NK) cell cytotoxicity in athymic (nude) rats.

The in vitro and in vivo natural killer (NK) cell activity of congenitally athymic, nude (ATH) rats and of normal, euthymic (EUTH) rats was compared. We found: a) a higher level of in vitro NK cell activity in blood, spleen and lymph nodes of ATH rats compared with their heterozygous littermates, b) in the spleen the number of NK lytic units per organ was not higher in ATH compared with EUTH whereas it was significantly higher in lymph nodes, c) a lack of age-dependence of in vitro NK cell activity tested in culture with heat inactivated fetal calf serum, d) a higher rate of in vivo elimination of target tumor cells in 4-week ATH rats compared with EUTH rats, e) an age-dependent decrease in the rate of in vivo target cell elimination in both groups, and finally, f) an age-dependent increase in the inhibitory effect of autologous serum on NK cell activity in vitro in both groups. These findings show that the blood and lymphoid organs of athymic rats contain a substantially higher proportion of NK cells, active both in vitro and in vivo against K562 tumor cells, than their euthymic littermates. In the spleen this increased proportion can be attributed to the lack of T cells, whereas in the ATH rat lymph nodes there is an absolute increase in NK cell activity, and that the decrease of cytotoxicity in vivo with age reflects the increasing inhibitory properties of autologous serum both in nude and in normal rats.