Is in vitro increased natural killer cell activity of metastatic melanoma patients with interferon-α alone as opposed to its combination with 13-cis retinoic acid associated with modulation of NKG2D and CD161 activating receptor expression?
The favorable enhancement of NK cell activity of MM patients obtained with IFN-α is associated with upregulation of activating NKG2D and CD161 receptors, while the lack of RA-associated upregulation is probably due to the shown increased expression of inhibitory KIR receptor CD158b after in vitro treatment with this agent.
Our results shows that GAL is not involved in the estrogenic activity of DHEA on pituitary lactotrophs, and suggest that DHEA effects are exerted directly on the PRL gene or through another mechanism(s) not related to GAL.