The effect of tertiary amine local anesthetics on human natural killer cell activity

Abstract

We investigated the effects of tertiary amine local anesthetics (procaine and lidocaine), which are proposed to effect the plasma membrane, on human natural killer (NK) cells.
NK cell activity against K-562 was measured in a 4 h-⁵¹Cr release assay.
Procaine and lidocaine markedly inhibited human NK cell activity in a dose dependent manner. The inhibition was prompt and irreversible. Procaine inhibited not only the binding, but also NK cell activity when NK cells were preincubated with procaine before K-562 cells were added, whereas procaine inhibited NK cell activity without interfering with the binding when it was added after the binding was completed.
These findings suggest that the plasma membrane, possibly phospholipids, may play an important role for human NK cells to bind to and kill the target cells.