CD107a is significantly upregulated on the surface of NK cells
following stimulation with MHC devoid targets. Additionally, CD107a expression correlates with both cytokine secretion and
NK cell-mediated lysis of target cells. However, as well as being coordinately expressed on nearly all cytokine secreting cells,
CD107a was also expressed on a large subset of NK cells that did not secrete cytokine following stimulation. These data
suggest that employing CD107a as a marker of NK cell functional activity may allow for the identification of a large fraction of
activated NK cells that may degranulate in the absence of cytokine secretion.