Natural Killer (NK) cells are primarily created through development in the bone marrow, although they also mature in other locations.
Natural Killer (NK) cells, a crucial component of the innate immune system, originate and develop primarily within the bone marrow.
While the bone marrow is the main site of NK cell development, they also undergo development in other areas of the body. These extramedullar sites include:
- Lymph nodes
- Thymus
- Liver
- Uterus
The process of NK cell development is not random; it is a tightly controlled process. This development is guided and influenced by various factors, specifically extracellular factors (signals from outside the cell) and intracellular factors (processes and signals occurring within the cell). These factors dictate how progenitor cells differentiate and mature into fully functional NK cells capable of identifying and eliminating target cells, such as infected cells or tumor cells.
In summary, NK cells are created through a developmental process starting mainly in the bone marrow and continuing in specific extramedullar tissues, regulated by both external and internal cellular signals.
