Host genetic control of Natural Killer cell diversity revealed in the Collaborative Cross

International audienceNatural Killer (NK) cells are innate effectors armed with cytotoxic and cytokine-secreting capacities whose spontaneous anti-tumor activity is key to numerous immunotherapeutic strategies. However, current mouse models fail to mirror the extensive human immune system variation that exists in the normal population which may impact on NK cell-based therapies. We performed a comprehensive profiling of NK cells in the Collaborative Cross (CC), a collection of novel recombinant inbred mouse strains whose genetic diversity matches that of humans, thereby providing a unique and highly diverse small animal model for the study of immune variation. We demonstrate that NK cells from CC lines displayed a breadth of phenotypic and functional variation reminiscent of that reported for humans with regards to cell numbers, key marker expression and functional capacities. We took advantage of the vast genetic diversity of the CC and identified 9 genomic loci through quantitative trait locus mapping driving these phenotypic variations. SNP haplotype-patterns and variant effect analyses identified candidate genes associated with lung NK cell numbers, frequencies of CD94+NK cells, and expression levels of NKp46. Thus, we demonstrate that the CC represents an outstanding resource to study NK cell diversity and its regulation by hostgenetics