Quantitative assessment of lymphocyte surface antigen expression patterns affecting NK cell activity in healthy individuals

Purpose: The number and proportion of natural killer (NK) cells has not been shown to directly correlate with NK cell activity. It has been suggested that the expression patterns of NK cell surface antigens may influence their activity, but there is no quantitative assessment of cell surface antigen expression patterns in healthy individuals. The purpose of this study was to identify expression patterns of NK cell surface antigens that correlate with NK cell activity and to quantitatively assess the correlation between antigen expression patterns and NK cell activity.