INTRODUCTION Natural killer (NK) cells possess an antitumor activity against multiple myeloma cells proven by the susceptibility of plasmocytes to NK lysis. In the early stage of MM, the killing of MM cells is mediated by natural cytotoxicity receptors (NRC) and NKG2D-dependent pathway, while in the late stage, NK cells lose their killing potential against MM cells due to the high expression of...

Killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) on natural killer (NK) cells interact with other immune cells to monitor the immune system and combat infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis (TB). The balance of activating and inhibiting KIR interactions helps determine the NK cell response. In order to examine the enrichment or depletion of KIRs as well as to explore the association between TB sta...

Human birth weight is subject to stabilizing selection; babies born too small or too large are less likely to survive. Particular combinations of maternal/fetal immune system genes are associated with pregnancies where the babies are ≤ 5th birth weight centile, specifically an inhibitory maternal KIR AA genotype with a paternally derived fetal HLA-C2 ligand. We have now analyzed maternal KIR an...

For the 22nd KIR Exchange, 4 DNA samples (KDNA#85-88) were shipped to each laboratory on March 10, 2010. Fifty-nine laboratories submitted their KIR typing results. The majority of the laboratories used either commercial or in-house developed sequence-specific primer (SSP) based PCR typing systems, and others used sequence-specific oligonucleotide probing (SSOP) method. The results for the 22nd...

Killer immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) ligand incompatibility in the graft-versus-host direction was demonstrated to be associated with improved outcome in patients given haploidentical, T-cell-depleted hematopoietic stem cell transplants (HSCTs). The goal of this study was to evaluate whether that observation could be generalized for patients receiving unmanipulated HSCTs from unrelated don...

Müller cell gliosis, which is characterized by upregulated expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), is a universal response in many retinal pathological conditions. Whether down-regulation of inward rectifying K (Kir) channels, which commonly accompanies the enhanced GFAP expression, could contribute to Müller cell gliosis is poorly understood. We investigated changes of Kir curren...

Inward rectifying potassium (Kir) channels participate in regulating potassium concentration (K(+)) in the central nervous system (CNS), including in the retina. We explored the contribution of Kir channels to retinal function by delivering Kir antibodies (Kir-Abs) into the rat eye in vivo to interrupt channel activity. Kir-Abs were coupled to a peptide carrier to reach intracellular epitopes. ...

Expression of killer cell Ig-like receptors (KIRs) diversifies human natural killer cell populations and T cell subpopulations. Whereas the major histocompatibility complex class I binding functions of inhibitory KIR are known, specificities for the activating receptors have resisted analysis. To understand better activating KIR and their relationship to inhibitory KIR, we took the approach of ...

Abstract The functions of human natural killer cells are controlled by diverse families antigen receptors. Prominent among these the cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR), a family genes clustered in one most variable regions genome — on chromosome 19q13.4. This study aimed to investigate possible interplay between KIR allotype, B19 infection, and thyroid disorders. Thyroid gland tissue 30 p...

The Notch signaling pathway plays a substantial role in human NK cell development. However, the role of Notch on killer Ig–like receptor (KIR) upregulation and acquisition of effector function has not been explored. To evaluate how Notch influences terminal differentiation , cord blood–derived NK cells or sorted peripheral blood NK cells were cultured with IL-15 for 7 d with inhibitory or activ...