Programmed cell death

Cell biology

Biology

Lymphokine-activated killer cell

Apoptosis

Receptor

Granzyme

Cancer research

Biochemistry

Granzyme B

Cytotoxicity

Immunology

In vitro

Cytotoxic T cell

NK-92

Interleukin 21

Perforin

The Journal of Experimental Medicine

NK cells eliminate virus-infected and tumor cells by releasing cytotoxic granules containing granzyme B (GrzB) or by engaging death receptors that initiate caspase cascades. The orchestrated interplay between both cell death pathways remains poorly defined. Here we simultaneously measure the activities of GrzB and caspase-8 in tumor cells upon contact with human NK cells. We observed that NK cells switch from inducing a fast GrzB-mediated cell death in their first killing events to a slow death receptor–mediated killing during subsequent tumor cell encounters. Target cell contact reduced intracellular GrzB and perforin and increased surface-CD95L in NK cells over time, showing how the switch in cytotoxicity pathways is controlled. Without perforin, NK cells were unable to perform GrzB-mediated serial killing and only killed once via death receptors. In contrast, the absence of CD95 on tumor targets did not impair GrzB-mediated serial killing. This demonstrates that GrzB and death receptor–mediated cytotoxicity are differentially regulated during NK cell serial killing.

NK cells switch from granzyme B to death receptor–mediated cytotoxicity during serial killing