Fig. 8.

Glutamine-dependent cMyc sustains NK cell metabolism and effector function. NK cells were activated with IL-2/IL-12 for 20 h and then put in the presence or absence of glutamine with or without BPTES for a further 1 h (b) or 20 h (a, c–g). a Flow cytometry analysis of FSC-A. b Western blot analysis of cMyc and β-actin protein expression. c Analysis of NK cell oxygen consumption rate (OCR) to assess rates of OXPHOS and maximal respiration. d Analysis of NK cell extracellular acidification rates (ECAR) to assess basal glycolytic rate and glycolytic capacity. e, f Flow cytometry analysis of IFNγ production (e) and granzyme b expression (f). g The cytotoxicity of NK cells towards tumour cells was assessed; NK cells were activated as described and were incubated with either YAC-1 or K562 tumour cells at the ratios indicated and the percent-specific cell lysis calculated. c, d For representative plots the data were normalised to 200,000 cells. Data are mean ± s.e.m. of 5 (g), 7 (c, d) or 12 (e, f) experiments or representative of 6 (b), 7 (c, d) or 12 (a–f) individual experiments. Statistical analysis was performed using a one-sample t-test (f), a one-way ANOVA with Tukey test (c, d)) or Sidak test (e), or a two-way ANOVA with Tukey test (g); *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.005, ns non-significant