Journal
NATURE REVIEWS IMMUNOLOGY
Volume 11, Issue 10, Pages 645-657Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/nri3044
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Funding
- Searle Scholars Program
- US National Institutes of Health (NIH) [AI085034]
- NIH [AI068129, AI066897, CA095137]
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Natural killer (NK) cells survey host tissues for signs of infection, transformation or stress and, true to their name, kill target cells that have become useless or are detrimental to the host. For decades, NK cells have been classified as a component of the innate immune system. However, accumulating evidence in mice and humans suggests that, like the B and T cells of the adaptive immune system, NK cells are educated during development, possess antigen-specific receptors, undergo clonal expansion during infection and generate long-lived memory cells. In this Review, we highlight the many stages that an NK cell progresses through during its remarkable lifetime, discussing similarities and differences with its close relative, the cytotoxic CD8(+) T cell.
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