Natural killer (NK) cells differentiated from hematopietic stem cells (HSCs)may have significant clinical benefits over those from adult donors, including the ability to choose allo-reactive donors and potentially more robust in vivo expansion. Stromal-based methods have been used to study NK differentiation from HSCs. Stroma and cytokines support NK differentiation, but may have considerable regulatory hurdles. Recently, a clinical grade heparin-based method has been reported and could serve as an alternative. How these two compare in NK generating efficiency or functionis unknown. We show that compared to heparin-based cultures, stromasignificantly increases the yield of HSC-derived NK cells by differentiating less committed progenitors into the NK lineage. NK cells generated by both approaches were similar for most NK activating or inhibitor receptors. While both approaches resulted in a phenotype consistent with CD56brightstage IV NK cells, heparin-based cultures favored the development of CD56+CD16+ cells, while stromaproducedmore KIR-expressing NK cells, both markers of terminal maturation. At day 21, stromal-based cultures showed significantly more IL-22 production and both methods yielded similar amounts of IFN-γ production and cytotoxicity (day 35). Thus, heparin-based cultures are an effective replacement for stroma and may facilitate clinical trials testing HSC-derived NK cells.
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