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The effects of neuroleptic compounds such as thiothixine,
trifluoperazine and fluphenazine on human peripheral lymphocyte
orenriched natural killer ( NK ) cell cytotoxic activity,
effector-target cellconjugation activity, NK cell numbers and
adhesion molecules wereinvestigated. The NK cytotoxic
activities were examined in a 4-h 51Cr release assay. The
percentage of conjugating lymphocytes was calculated by
countingthe number of single lymphocyte bound to single target
cells per 400effector cells. The number of human NK cells were
expressed by thepercentage of CD16 and/or CD56 positive cells,
while the adhesionmolecules were expressed by the percentage of
CD2- or CD11a- positivecells. Pretreatment with thiothixine,
trifluoperazine or fluphenazine for 3-18h decrease the NK cell
cytotoxicity, the effector-target cell conjugationactivity, the
number of CD16- and CD56- positive subsets of NK cells, or
theCD11a positive surface marker. In addition, the mixed
lymphocyte reactionas shown by thymidine incorporation activity
was inhibited by pretreatmentwith thiothixine, trifluoperazine
or fluphenazine. However, neither thepercentage of viability of
NK cells nor CD2 adhesion molecule expressionwas affected by
any one of these drugs. The results indicate that these
neuroleptic drugs decrease NK cytotoxic activity by decreasing
effector-target conjugation activity, number of NK cells and/or
the expression ofCD11a adhesion molecule.
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