https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-025-01694-w
Review
Advantages and disadvantages of the assay for determining NK cell activity using radioactive chromium in clinical practice: our experience
1
Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia
2
Institute for Oncology and Radiology of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia
3
Clinic of Hematology, Clinical Hospital Center “Bezanijska Kosa”, Medical Faculty, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
Received:
24
April
2025
Accepted:
12
May
2025
Published online:
25
May
2025
NK (natural killer) cells play an important role in the elimination of tumor transformed cells, virus-infected cells and stressed cells. There are several methods for examining NK cells in clinical work in patients with tumors. This paper describes the main advantages and disadvantages of the NK function assay, which was discovered a long time ago but is still in use in clinical work as well as in basic research. The assay requires the use of a co-culture of tumor target cells that are mixed with isolated NK cells and the labeling of the target tumor cells with radioactive chromium. Based on the released chromium from the assay, and according to the mathematical formula that takes into account the spontaneous and maximal activity of the released chromium, the percentage of cytotoxicity of NK cells is calculated. The assay is valid, it represents the total activity of lysed cells, it is used to monitor the immune system, but it requires staff training for the use and work with radioactive nuclides.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
