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The purpose of this study was to identify CD56^bright and CD56^dim natural killer (NK) cell subsets and analyze their receptors expression in a healthy Korean population, and to determine whether receptor expression correlates with age, sex, and cytotoxicity.

We performed multicolor flow cytometry assays to analyze the expression of various NK cell receptors (CD16, NKG2A, NKG2C, NKG2D, CD57, DNAM-1, CD8a, CD62L, NKp30, and NKp46) on both CD3⁻/CD56^dim and CD3⁻/CD56^bright NK cells in whole-blood samples from 122 healthy donors. The expression of these receptors was compared according to age (<30 years, n = 22, 30–60 years, n = 73 and >60 years, n = 27) and gender (male, n = 61, female, n = 61). NK cell cytotoxicity assays were performed with peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 18 individuals. The results were compared to the expression …