Functional Analysis of Natural Killer Cell Receptors in the RNK-16 Rat Leukemic Cell Line

An overriding theme of natural killer (NK) cell receptor systems is functional redundancy. Many receptors with similar or divergent functional features may be expressed by an individual NK cell. As such, it may be difficult to define the exact contribution of a particular receptor toward NK cell function. A dearth of stimulating or blocking antibodies against many NK receptors has hampered functional studies, and the available anti-NK cell antibodies are frequently public for several receptors, leading to ambiguities in functional characterizations of their antigens. To study members of the various NK cell receptor families, we have developed an NK cell transfection system using the NK leukemic cell line RNK-16.