INTERFERON AND NATURAL-KILLER CELLS IN SYSTEMIC LUPUS-ERYTHEMATOSUS

  • 1 January 1982
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 50  (2) , 246-252
Abstract
Natural killer (NK) cell activity against several types of target cells was subnormal in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Interferon (IFN) boosted the NK activity of cells from SLE patients to a significantly lesser degree than cells from normal controls. The production of IFN after stimulation of blood cells with Sendai virus was significantly decreased in SLE patients with active disease and, in a substantial proportion of the patients, the production of phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-induced IFN was below normal limits. Although the production of virus-induced IFN was clearly inversely correlated to disease activity no such correlation was observed for PHA-induced IFN. Serum levels of both pH2 stable and pH2 labile IFN were significantly higher in SLE patients than in controls. SLE is associated with abnormalities in the NK cell-IFN system but it cannot be stated whether these abnormalities are causally related to the development of disease or are secondary to pathologically changes in SLE.