This invention relates to the field of
cell culture technology, and discloses a method for culturing NK cells and its applications. When NK cells enter a hypoxic environment, not only do their cytotoxic activity and
proliferative capacity rapidly decline, but they also experience metabolic disorders such as impaired mitochondrial function, insufficient
ATP production, and abnormal accumulation of
reactive oxygen species (ROS), leading to
functional failure and limiting their application in
tumor therapy. Existing technologies mainly rely on constant or single-stage hypoxia induction, failing to improve the insufficient hypoxia
adaptation of NK cells at the metabolic level. Therefore, this invention provides a method that uses repeated
acclimatization culture with gradually decreasing
oxygen concentration to allow NK cells to gradually adapt to the metabolic demands of a hypoxic environment. NK cells cultured using this method exhibit a more stable
metabolic state and superior cytotoxic activity in a hypoxic environment, significantly enhancing their anti-tumor
efficacy and solving the problem of metabolic imbalance and rapid functional loss of NK cells in the
hypoxic tumor microenvironment in existing technologies.