A Flow Cytometric Assay for Analysis of Natural-Killer Cell-Mediated Cytolysis of Adenovirus-Transformed Cells

Natural-killer (NK) cells play an important role in recognizing and eliminating virally infected and transformed cells. To study this process, convenient assays for NK-cell function are required. Conventional NK-cell activity assays measure the release of ⁵¹ Cr from prelabeled target cells following membrane disruption. This chapter describes nonradiometric assays for NK-cell killing of adenovirus-transformed human cells that can be applied to multiple cell samples using flow cytometry.