Cellular inactivation through killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) may allow neoplastic cells to evade host natural killer (NK) cell-mediated immunity. Recently, alloreactive NK cells were shown to mediate antileukemic effects against acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) after mismatched transplantation, when KIR ligand incompatibility existed in the direction of graft-versus-host disease (G...

In placental mammals, natural killer (NK) cells are a population of lymphocytes that make unique contributions to immune defence and reproduction, functions essential for survival of individuals, populations and species. Modulating these functions are conserved and variable NK-cell receptors that recognize epitopes of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules. In humans, for exam...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Killer inhibitory receptors (KIR) have a modulating effect on the cytotoxic functions of natural killer (NK) cells and T cells. Because lymphoma cells often have the same receptors as their non-neoplastic counterparts, this study investigated the expression of KIR on well defined groups of NK and T cell lymphomas, with and without a cytotoxic phenotype, from different sites of o...

Abstract Human natural killer (NK) cells are essential for controlling infection, cancer, and fetal development. NK cell functions modulated by interactions between polymorphic inhibitory immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) HLA-A, -B, -C ligands expressed on tissue cells. All HLA-C alleles encode a KIR ligand contribute to reproduction immunity. In contrast, only some HLA-A -B they focus By hig...

AIM To explore the role of killer immunoglobulin receptor (KIR) genes in responsiveness or non-responsiveness to vaccination against hepatitis B virus. METHODS We recruited 101 voluntary participants between March 2010 and December 2011. Sera samples from vaccinated and non-vaccinated participants were tested for the presence of anti-HBs antibodies as a measure of protection against hepatitis...

In sub-Saharan Africans, maternal mortality is unacceptably high, with >400 deaths per 100,000 births compared with <10 deaths per 100,000 births in Europeans. One-third of the deaths are caused by pre-eclampsia, a syndrome arising from defective placentation. Controlling placentation are maternal natural killer (NK) cells that use killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) to recognize the...

Polarized expression of the Kir 2.3 channel in renal epithelial cells is influenced by the opposing activities of two different PDZ proteins. Mammalian Lin-7 (mLin-7) directly interacts with Kir 2.3 to coordinate basolateral membrane expression, whereas the tax interacting protein 1 (TIP-1), composed of a single PDZ domain, competes for interaction with mLin-7 and drives Kir 2.3 into the endocy...

Inwardly rectifying K+ (Kir) channels are responsible for maintaining endothelial membrane potential and play a key role in endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation. In this study, we show that endothelial Kir channels are suppressed by hypercholesterolemic levels of lipoproteins in vitro and by serum hypercholesterolemia in vivo. Specifically, exposing human aortic endothelial cells to acetylated ...

RESULTS: All 16 KIR genes known were observed in the Albanian individuals and framework genes (KIR3DL3, KIR3DP1, KIR2DL4, and KIR3DL2) were present in all individuals. The frequencies of other KIR genes were: KIR2DP1 (0.981), KIR2DL1 (1), KIR2DL2 (0.615), KIR2DL3 (0.865), KIR2DL5 (0.414), KIR3DL1 (0.933), KIR2DS1 (0.462), KIR2DS2 (0.606), KIR2DS3 (0.327), KIR2DS4 (0.875), KIR2DS5 (0.298), and K...

Successful allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) depends not only on good HLA match but also on T-cell mediated graft-versus-leukemia (GvL) effect. Natural killer (NK) cells are able to kill malignant cells by receiving activation signal from the killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) recognizing HLA molecules on a cancer cell. It has been recently reported that the...