Human Fcy receptors (FcyRs) for the Fc portion of IgG are major mediators of the adaptive immune response. Crystal structures of their extracellular domains were recently solved and shown to obey a common fold, resulting in a heart-shaped structure. Together with the multifunctional Fc fragment, whose structure was deciphered in the 1970s, the complex of an FcyR with Fc was recently crystallize...

IgG1 Fc is a remarkable molecule, capable of initiating pro-inflammatory or antiinflammatory responses by binding to Fc receptors. IgG1 Fc has a conserved glycosylation site at N297. The presence of the carbohydrate at N297 is vital for proper Fc function. Intramolecular glycan-polypeptide interactions are thought to impose conformational restrictions on Fc that maintain binding-favorable inter...

Polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) are important effector cells in host defense and the inflammatory response to antigen. The involvement of PMNs in inflammation is mediated mainly by the Fc receptor family, including IgE receptors. Recently, PMNs were shown to express two IgE receptors (CD23/Fc«RII and galectin-3). In allergic diseases, the dominant role of IgE has been mainly ascribed to it...

AIMS We sought to test the hypothesis that inherent biological factors contribute to gender differences in disease pathophysiology of new-onset heart failure (HF), which can be detected from the transcriptome of a single endomyocardial biopsy (EMB). METHODS AND RESULTS We analysed samples from male (n = 29) and female patients (n = 14) with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDCM) and new-ons...

Human Fc gamma receptor (Fc gamma R) genes form a clustered gene family, which consists of Fc gamma RIIA, IIB, IIC, IIIA, and IIIB genes, on chromosome 1q23. We previously reported that the Fc gamma RIIA-131H/H genotype in combination with the Fc gamma RIIIB-NA2 allele is associated with susceptibility to cerebral malaria, and that such an association can be caused by linkage disequilibrium (LD...

We previously described the cloning of a human myeloid cell surface receptor for the Fc region of immunoglobulin A (Fc alpha R). In the present study, a soluble version of the Fc alpha R (solFc alpha R) was generated by removing the transmembrane and cytoplasmic coding regions from full-length Fc alpha R cDNA and ligating into a mammalian expression vector. COS-7 cells transfected with the solF...