IFN alpha-induced gene expression in human NK cells

NK cells are believed to contribute to the control of hepatitis C virus infection and pathogenesis of liver disease. Standard treatment of both acute and chronic hepatitis C is based on the administration of interferon alpha, however, the effects of type I interferons on human NK cells have not been studied in the context of hepatitis C. We therefore first performed a microarray screen for genes differentially regulated in human NK cells after stimulation of PBMC with recombinant interferon alpha-2b. One of the genes upregulated was TRAIL which was confirmed in vitro on the protein level. Keywords: Interferon alpha; human NK cells; stimulation for 6 hours; cells sorted after stimulation of whole PBMC NK cells of PBMC of five healthy controls have been either isolated directly or after culturing for 6h in media containing 10% human AB serum supplemented with 1 and 100 ng/ml recombinant IFNa-2b. RNA of NK cells of the healthy controls was isolated and RNA was pooled for the hybridization.