Cutting Edge: Stage-Specific Requirement of IL-18 for Antiviral NK Cell Expansion

Although NK cells are considered part of the innate immune system, recent studies have demonstrated the ability of Ag-experienced NK cells to become long-lived and contribute to potent recall responses similar to T and B cells. The precise signals that promote the generation of a long-lived NK cell response are largely undefined. In this article, we demonstrate that NK cells require IL-18 signaling to generate a robust primary response during mouse CMV (MCMV) infection but do not require this signal for memory cell maintenance or recall responses. IL-12 signaling and STAT4 in activated NK cells increased the expression of the adaptor protein MyD88, which mediates signaling downstream of the IL-18 and IL-1 receptors. During MCMV infection, NK cells required MyD88, but not IL-1R, for optimal expansion. Thus, an IL-18-MyD88 signaling axis facilitates the prolific expansion of NK cells in response to primary viral infection, but not recall responses.