Fig. 3

Number of expanded NK cells has steady decrease in vivo with interleukin (IL)-2 or IL-15/IL-15Rα injections. a, b Ten million expanded NK cells from a healthy donor were injected into NRG mice with daily IL-2 injections (20,000 Units). Mice were euthanized on days 1, 3, and 7. Blood, spleen, lungs, and liver were harvested and cells were isolated and stained with mCD45, hCD45, CD56, and CD3 antibodies and examined via flow cytometry. Percent human CD45⁺ cells were calculated based on total mCD45⁺ and hCD45⁺ cells and graphed. a Representative flow plots of three mice euthanized on days 1, 3, and 7. b Percent hCD45⁺ cells in each tissue was calculated and plotted (n = 5, mean ± SEM). c Similarly, 10 million expanded NK cells from a healthy donor were injected into NRG mice with daily injection of either 20,000 Units of IL-2 (grey) or IL-15 (500 ng) and IL-15Rα (1000 ng) (orange) (n = 3, mean ± SEM). Two-way ANOVA was used to compare the difference between both groups at the different time points, and a Bonferroni was used as a post-hoc test. **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001