Fig. 4.

CD39 on NK cells modulate hepatic IRI. (A) To exclude confounding influences of the hepatic and systemic endothelium, adoptive transfer of wild-type and CD39 bone marrow-derived cells was performed after total body irradiation of wild-type mice. After transfer of CD39-null bone marrow, liver injury was significantly decreased in comparison to transfer of wild-type bone marrow after 3 hours of reperfusion. (B, C) NK cells but not NKT cells expand at 3 hours after reperfusion injury. (D) Performing adoptive transfer of NKT cells into Rag1 null mice revealed decreased injury in the control group and no difference between transfer of wild-type versus CD39-null NKT cells after 24 hours of reperfusion. (E) IRI in mice null for IFNγ was decreased after 3 hours but not after 24 hours. (F) Adoptive transfer of purified NK cells from wild-type mice and mice null for CD39 and null for IFNγ into Rag2/common gamma-null mice. Hepatic injury was significantly decreased after transfer of CD39-null and IFNγ null NK cells after 3 hours of reperfusion as compared to transfer of wild-type NK cells. Values are mean ± standard deviation of at least four animals per time point. Levels of significance were assessed by unpaired t tests. P values are as indicated.