Figure 2.

IFN-γ secretion and NK-cell mediated cytotoxicity of PBMCs, BM, and splenocytes of NACL and ZOL-injected hu-BLT mice. Hu-BLT mice were administered with either 0.9% NACL or ZOL (500 µg/kg) via IV as described in Materials and Methods section. Four weeks after injections, mice were euthanized and tissues were harvested to obtain single cell suspension. PBMCs (A), BM cells (B), and splenocytes (C) of hu-BLT mice were cultured (2 × 10⁶ cells/2ml) with IL-2 (1000 U/ml) for three days, after which the supernatants were harvested and the levels of IFN-γ were determined using specific ELISA. PBMCs (A), BM cells (B), and splenocytes (C) were used as effector cells in standard 4-hour ⁵¹Cr release assay against human OSCSCs tumors. Lytic units (LU) 30/10⁶ cells were determined using inverse number of effector cells required to lyse 30% of OSCSCs × 100. LUs per 1% NK cells were determined using CD16+CD56+ percentages obtained by flow cytometric analysis (n=2) (A–C). **(p value 0.001-0.01), *(p value 0.01-0.05).