Suppressed natural killer cell activity in patients with chronic autoimmune thrombocytopenic purpura
Natural killer (NK) cell activity was studied in 17 patients with primary chronic idiopathic autoimmune thrombocytopenic purpura (ATP). Fifteen of 17 patients had a significantly reduced NK cytotoxicity against 51chromium labeled K562 target cells (mean LU20% = 18 ± 20 in patients versus 65 = 2 5 in controls, P < 0.001). NK activity was also significantly reduced in all of six patients with second