Skip to main content
. 2021 Nov 10;12:724107. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.724107

Figure 6.

Figure 6

Model for NK cell surveillance of BLCA. In contrast to resting NK cells (turquoise), IL-2 (pink circles) primes NK cells (purple cells) to express the activating receptors KLRK1 (also known as NKG2D), CD160, and TNFRSF14. Engagement of NKG2D promotes NK cell cytotoxicity of BLCA tumor cells (peach cells) expressing NKG2D ligands. BLCA tumor cells can also express TNFRSF14 and binding of CD160 on activated NK cells to TNFRSF14 on tumor cells promotes apoptosis of tumor cells, thus improving BLCA patient prognosis. The binding of TNFRSF14 to CD160 on neighboring NK cells may augment NK cell activation. IL-2-primed NK cells also express NKp44, whereas resting NK cells do not. BLCA tumor cells produce platelet-derived growth factor D (PDGF-DD, yellow circles) which induces cellular activation via NKp44 to generate a protumorigenic NK cell phenotype (red cells) that may be detrimental for patient prognosis. Created with BioRender.com.