Natural Killer (NK) cells are white blood cells involved in both innate immune responses and acquired immunity.
In addition to defending the organism from external attacks, they recognize and kill cancer cells, and are involved in the phenomena of autoimmunity.
What are NK Cells?
The immune system
The immune system defends the organism from both external (such as viruses and bacteria) and internal dangers (such as cancer cells).
NK cells also play an important role, exerting cytotoxic action against both virus-infected cells and against dysfunctional cells that can generate a tumor.
NK cells in defense of the organism
The uniqueness of NK cells lies in the association between their strong ability to recognize situations of cellular stress and their high reaction speed. Unfortunately, diseases such as cancer and serious infections reduce their ability to defend the organism from external or internal attacks, paving the way for the onset of new diseases.
Not only that, these cells can lose the ability to do their best work even in less serious conditions, for example due to depression. Also, in this case the appearance of other diseases is favored.
NK cells and autoimmune diseases
NK cells also play an important role in regulating the autoimmune response and are associated with diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
Are you pregnant?
Are you thinking of storing your child's stem cells?
Cord blood is the blood that remains in the umbilical cord after the baby is born and is a valuable source of stem cells.
Until recently it was treated as “waste” and eliminated with hospital waste along with the placenta and the umbilical cord. It is currently used in the treatment of around 100 serious diseases.
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