Journal: bioRxiv
Article Title: In vivo screening reveals new regulators of Natural Killer cell development and functional response to acute cytomegalovirus infection
doi: 10.64898/2026.03.19.709783
Figure Lengend Snippet: (a) MCMV titers in the spleen 4 days after infection with tissue culture-derived MCMV +/− anti-NK1.1 administration. Data are merged from two experiments and represent 4 in total. (b & c) Representative FACS plots (b) and quantification (c) of degranulating NK cells from spleens of WT and Sytl3 −/− mice 4 days after MCMV infection. Data represent > 3 experiments. (d) Externalization of CD107a was assessed by flow cytometry following stimulation of NK cells from WT and Sytl3 −/− mice +/− PMA-Ionomycin, cytokines or P815 cells pre-incubated +/− agonist antibodies to activating NK cell receptors. Cells were pooled within groups where lymphocyte numbers were insufficient. Individual mice (except 1 point which represents 2 pooled mouse samples), median and interquartile range are shown. Data from 1 of 3 experiments are shown. Significance was assessed using paired analysis of WT and Sytl3 −/− NK cells in each treatment condition using a Mann Whitney U test. *p < 0.05, ** p = 0.005. (e) NK cells derived from WT and Sytl3 −/− mice were stimulated with BaF/3 control and BaF/3-m157 cells across several E:T ratios. Annexin V binding to target cells was assessed. Mean +/− SD is shown from 3 technical replicates/data point. Paired statistical analyses of WT vs Sytl3 −/− was performed using Student’s t-Test at each E:T ratio for either m157 + or m157 − cell lines. *p < 0.05. (f) Representative microscopy images of F-actin (red), brightfield and interference reflection microscopy [IRM] (shown in grayscale) in naïve WT and Sytl3 −/− NK cells stimulated for 10 minutes on surfaces coated with anti-NK1.1 mAb. Scale bars, 10 µm. (g) The proportion of cells that have formed an actin ring. Data represents 2 experiments. (h) Degranulation of human primary blood expanded NK cells in response to K562 or PMA/Ionomycin stimulation and (i) specific killing of K562 targets after 3-hour incubation with NK cells. STC is a safe cutting control and SYLT3_g1 and SYLT3_g4 are two independent sgRNA to generate SYLT3 KO. (h-i) Each dot represents an individual human donor, p values from 2-way ANOVA with correction for multiple testing with a post-hoc Dunnett test. Representative image from two independent experiments with unique donors.
Article Snippet: Some mice were treated with 200μg anti-NK1.1 (clone PK136, BioXCell) or PBS control on days −2, 0 and +2 post infection Age- and sex-matched mice (males and females) aged 6-12 weeks were used.
Techniques: Infection, Derivative Assay, Flow Cytometry, Incubation, MANN-WHITNEY, Control, Binding Assay, Microscopy