The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of cellular immunity activation on P58(+) cells expressing killer cell inhibitory receptor (KIR) and their regulatory function on cellular immunity, and provid theoretical data for preventing graft-vers-host disease (GVHD) in stem cell transplantation therapy. The mononuclear cells from human peripheral blood were incubated with IL-2, Con A and Lipostin (LP) for 72 hours. The KIR expressing cells, P58.1(+) and P58.2(+) cells, were analyzed by flow cytometry. The results showed that the percentages of CD3(+), CD4(+), CD8(+), CD16(+)CD56(+), P58.1(+) and P58.2(+) cells were greatly increased after treated with IL-2, Con A and LP, separately or in combination, and the percentages of above cells in combined treatment groups were higher than those of single stimulated groups, especially the percentage of cells in the IL-2 + LP group was significantly higher than those in IL-2 and LP singly treated groups.
In conclusion: IL-2, Con A and LP possess the ability to induce the expression of KIR and stimulate proliferation of P58.1(+) and P58.2(+) cells while to activate the celluar immunity response, the expression of P58 gene may be regulated by the activation of cellular immunity.