Title: natural killer cell activity assay
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - natural killer cell activity assay
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.13500
Status: current

Definition
Immunotoxicity test in which lymphoid tissue or blood that has been treated with a test compound is co-incubated with target cells. The cytotoxic effect on target cells is measured, e.g., with the chromium release assay. It is used under circumstances where differences from untreated cells are attributed to natural killer (NK) cell activity.

Related Terms
- chromium release assay: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/13004
- lymphoid tissue: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/13414
- natural killer (NK) cell: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/13499

Source
- PAC, 2012, 84, 1113. 'IUPAC glossary of terms used in immunotoxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2012)' on page 1219 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-11-06-03)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13500/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13500/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13500/xml

Citation: Citation: 'natural killer cell activity assay' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.13500
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Accessed: 2026-07-14T00:43:53+00:00