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pubmed:abstractText |
Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is enriched with transplantable CD34+ cells. In addition to CD34-expressing haematopoietic stem cells (HSC), human UCB contains a rare population of CD34-lineage- cells endowed with the ability to differentiate along the T/NK pathway in response to interleukin (IL)-15 and a stromal cell support. IL-21 is a crucial regulator of NK cell function, whose influence on IL-15-induced differentiation of CD34-lineage- cells has not been investigated previously. The present study was designed and conducted to address whether IL-21 might replace the stromal cell requirements and foster the IL-15-induced NK differentiation of human UCB CD34-lineage- cells.
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