Although structurally unrelated, the human killer cell Ig-like (KIR) genes and the rodent lectin-like Ly49 genes serve similar functional roles in NK cells. Moreover, both gene families display variegated, monoallelic expression patterns established at the transcriptional level. DNA methylation has been shown to play an important role in maintenance of expression patterns of KIR genes, which ha...

Purpose: The immune responses of natural killer (NK) cells against cancer vary by patient. Killer Ig-like receptors (KIRs), which are some the major involved in regulating NK cell activity for killing cells, have significant genetic variation. Numerous studies suggested a potential association between variation KIR genes and risk development or prognosis various types. However, an variations gl...

BACKGROUND Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) can be curative for many hematologic diseases. However, complications such as graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and relapse of primary malignancy remain significant and are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. Effects of killer Ig-like receptors (KIR)-influenced NK cells on HCT outcomes have been extensively pursued over th...

The killer Ig-like receptors (KIR) are a family of highly related MHC class I receptors that show extreme genetic polymorphism both within the human population and between closely related primate species, suggestive of rapid evolutionary diversification. Most KIR are expressed in a variegated fashion by the NK population, giving rise to an NK repertoire of specificities for MHC class I. We comp...

AIM To explore whether predisposition to autoimmune gastritis (AIG) is found in human leukocyte antigen (HLA), cytokine or killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) gene variations. METHODS Twelve Finnish patients with autoimmune-type severe atrophy of the gastric corpus were included. The patients' serum was analyzed for pepsinogen I and Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) antibodies. DNA w...

Activation of various immune cell types can be prevented by negative signaling receptors. Natural killer (NK) cells, which can lyse tumor or virus-infected cells, express inhibitory receptors that recognise distinct ‘self’ class I molecules of the major histocompatibility complex [1]. Recognition of self class I molecules results in a negative signal to prevent NK-mediated killing of healthy ce...

BACKGROUND Nature killer (NK) cells are the immune system's first line of defense against both viral infections and tumors. Killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) are associated with susceptibility to different types of cancers. We investigated KIR 2D (L1, L3, L4, S4) and KIR 3DL1 protein expression and their association with survival in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODS T...

A small fraction of T cells expresses killer-cell Ig-like receptors (KIR), a family of MHC class I-specific receptors that can modulate TCR-dependent activation of effector functions. Although KIR(+) cells are enriched within Ag-experienced T cell subsets, the precise relationships between KIR(+) and KIR(-) T cells and the stage of KIR induction on these lymphocytes remain unclear. In this stud...