Posttransplantation non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a life-threatening complication after transplantation. Although pharmacologically suppressed adaptive immunity plays a major role in its development, the role of innate immunity in posttransplantation lymphoma is unknown. We assessed the 158 V/F polymorphism in the Fcreceptor 3A gene (FCGR3A), killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) genotype, K...

We analyzed the effects of acute ischemia-reperfusion (KIR) injury on the status of kidney function and architecture in dipeptidyl peptidase4-difficient (DPP4D) rats and the effect of remote small bowel ischemia-reperfusion (BIR) preconditioning. DPP4-deficient (DPP4D) and normal Fischer344 (F344) rats were divided into 6 groups: (1) sham-F344, (2) sham-DPP4D, (3) KIR-F344 (4) KIR-DPP4D, (5) DP...

Natural killer (NK) cells represent an important first line of defense against viruses and malignancy [1]. NK cells express a variety of inhibitory and activating receptors that interact with classical major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules on potential target cells and determine the NK cell response [2-4]. Mouse NK receptors are encoded by the C-type lectin multigene family L...

We investigated polymorphisms of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I (A, B, and C) loci of a Han population (n, 239) from the Yunnan province, Southwest China, using high-resolution polymerase chain reaction-Luminex (PCR-Luminex) typing. We combined the HLA data from this study with the KIR genotypes from a previous study of this Han population to analyze the combination of KIR/HLA ligand...

Cancer immunosurveillance is an important host protection process, monitoring the presence of irregular cells that could potentially transform into tumor cells, effectively clearing the body of transformed tumor cells at their earliest stages, and thus maintaining regular cellular homeostasis. Natural killer (NK) cells are effector lymphocytes of the innate immune system, playing a critical rol...

A recently developed anti-KIR2DL5 (CD158f) antibody has demonstrated KIR2DL5 expression on the surface of NK and T lymphocytes, making it the last functional KIR identified in the human genome. KIR2DL5 belongs to an ancestral lineage of KIR with Ig-like domains of the D0-D2 type, of which KIR2DL4, an HLA-G receptor, is the only other human member. Despite KIR2DL4 and KIR2DL5 being encoded by ge...

The killer cell Ig-like receptor (KIR) gene family encodes MHC class I receptors expressed by NK cells and several T cell subpopulations. Factors contributing to human KIR haplotype diversity are differences in gene number, gene content, and allelic polymorphism. Whereas functional and clinical consequences of the first two factors are established, knowledge of the effects of KIR gene polymorph...

Killer Ig-like receptors (KIR) are expressed by human NK cells and T cells. Although Ag-specific cytolytic activity and cytokine production of KIR(+) T cells can be inhibited by KIR ligation, the effect of KIR on proliferation is unclear. KIR(+) T cells have been reported to have a general proliferative defect. To investigate whether KIR(+) T cells represent end-stage dysfunctional T cells, we ...