Spontaneous and cytokine induced natural killer cytotoxicity in patients with Cushing´s disease

Abstract

Patients with endogenous hypercortisolism are prone to develop infectious diseases. In this study, we investigated the spontaneous and in vitro response to interleukin-2 (LAK) or interferon -a (IFN-a NK) natural killer cytotoxicity in 12 ambulatory female patients with Cushing’s disease (CD) Twelve healthy age-matched women served as control subjects (C). Mean spontaneous NK activity in CD ( 1.82 ± 0.77 LU/106 PBL) was not different than C (2.38 ± 0.59 LU/106 PBL). Mean LAK activity in CD (4.27 ± 1.72 LU/106 PBL) was significantly lower than C (9.52 ± 1.19 LU/10 6 PBL; p<0.001). Mean IFN-a NK cytotoxicity response in CD (3.33 ± 1.57 LU/10 6 PBL) was significantly reduced compared with C (8.41 ± 1.24 LU/106 PBL, p< 0.001). Spontaneous and stimulated NK cytotoxicity did not show correlation with plasma corticotrophin, total urinary-free cortisol or late salivary cortisol. Although spontaneous NK cytotoxicity did not demonstrate differences from healthy women, this finding did not exclude an impairment of the NK response to immunomodulators like found in these high-risk patients.