Primary Immunodeficiencies Unravel the Role of IL-2/CD25/STAT5b in Human Natural Killer Cell Maturation.

Natural killer (NK) cells play a pivotal role during immunity against viruses and circumstantial evidence also indicates that they can protect the host against developing tumors. Peripheral blood NK cells comprise CD56CD16 cells that constitutively express CD25 (IL-2Rα) and CD56CD16 cells that express CD25 upon activation. Using NK cells from two patients, one with a primary immunodeficiency characterized by a homozygous mutation in CD25 (born in year 2007 and studied since she was 3 years old) and one with a homozygous mutation in STAT5b (born in year 1992 and studied since she was 10 years old), we observed that the absence of IL-2 signaling through CD25 promotes the accumulation of CD56CD16 NK cells, and that CD56CD16, CD56CD16, and CD56CD16 NK cells of this patient exhibited higher content of perforin and granzyme B, and proliferation capacity, compared to healthy donors.