. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Sep 9.

Published in final edited form as: Curr Biol. 2013 Sep 9;23(17):10.1016/j.cub.2013.07.015. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2013.07.015

Table 2.

Inducers of NK cell ‘memory’^a

	Antigen-specific memory			Cytokine-induced memory
	Chemical Irritants^b	Virus-like particles^b	MCMV	Cytokine-induced memory
*Receptor(s)*	Unknown	Unknown	Ly49H	IL12R + IL18R
*Clonal expansion*	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Not applicable
*Duration*	~4 months	~4 months	~70 days	~4 weeks
*Degranulation*	Enhanced	Unknown	Enhanced	Unchanged
*IFN-γ*	Unknown	Unknown	Enhanced	Enhanced
*Protection from viral infection*	Not applicable	Enhanced	Enhanced	Unknown

NK cell ‘memory’ has been reported to be antigen-specific in the case of chemical irritants, virus-like-particles, and MCMV, or alternatively it can be induced by cytokines.

Examples of chemical irritants capable of eliciting contact hypersensitivity (CHS) responses include DNFB, oxazalone, picryl chloride, and FITC (see text).

Both chemical irritants and virus-like-particles (VLP) can elicit NK cell-dependent contact hypersensitivity reactions, which are antigen-specific.