Fig. 6.

Cytolytic effector molecules important for inhibition of RKIK-4862 tumor growth by adoptively transferred NK cells. To investigate the cytolytic effector molecules important for the inhibition of RKIK-4862 tumor growth, C57BL/6 RAG-2^−/−γc^−/− recipient mice bearing tumor were injected with NK cells derived from pfp^−/−, IFN-γ^−/−, TRAIL^−/−, GzmA^−/−, GzmB^−/−, GzmM^−/− or WT mice on days 0 and 1. To investigate the role of the NKG2D pathway, mice were treated with WT NK cells and intraperitoneal injections of the NKG2D blocking antibody C7 or isotype control antibody UC8.1B9. In all experiments adoptive transfer of WT NK cell-treated mice (open squares) significantly inhibited RKIK-4862 tumor growth compared to untreated mice (closed squares). a Adoptive transfer of pfp^−/− NK cells (open triangles) did not inhibit RKIK-4862 tumor growth compared to untreated mice (closed squares). b Adoptive transfer of GzmA^−/− NK cells (closed triangles) and WT NK cells (open squares) both led to significant inhibition of RKIK-4862 tumor growth compared to untreated mice (closed squares). c Adoptive transfer of GzmB^−/− NK cells (open triangles) did not inhibit RKIK-4862 tumor growth compared to untreated mice (closed squares). d Adoptive transfer of GzmM^−/− NK cells (open triangles) did not inhibit RKIK-4862 tumor growth compared to untreated mice (closed squares). e Adoptive transfer of TRAIL^−/− NK cells (open triangles) did not inhibit RKIK-4862 tumor growth compared to untreated mice (closed squares). f Adoptive transfer of WT NK cells with NKG2D blocking antibody C7 (closed triangles) or isotype control antibody UC8.1B9 (open triangles) led to significant inhibition of RKIK-4862 tumor growth compared to untreated mice (closed squares). g Adoptive transfer of IFN-γ^−/− NK cells (open triangles) did not inhibit RKIK-4862 tumor growth compared to untreated mice (closed squares). Data shown are average tumor area ± SEM from 5 to 15 mice from two independent experiments, **p2 > 0.05 and *p2 < 0.05