Background: Despite an increasing awareness of the importance of innate immunity, the roles of natural killer (NK) cells in transplant rejection and antiviral and cancer immunity during immunosuppression have not been clearly defined.
Methods: To address this issue we have developed a quantitative assay of NK cell function that can be used on clinical samples and have studied the influence of immunosuppression on NK cell function. NK cell degranulation and intracellular interferon (IFN)-γ production were determined by flow cytometry of peripheral blood samples.