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The Yin and Yang of HLA and KIR in human disease

Smita Kulkarni1, Maureen P Martin, Mary Carrington

  • 1Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21231, USA.

Seminars in Immunology
|July 19, 2008
PubMed

Killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) are expressed on natural killer (NK) cells and subsets of T cells. The KIR genes are polymorphic and the KIR gene complex is polygenic with varying numbers of inhibitory and activating receptors. HLA class I molecules serve as ligands for the KIR. Interactions of the independently segregating KIR and HLA loci are important for recognition of targets by NK cells as well as NK cell 'licensing'. Several disease association studies indicate a role for interactions between these loci in infectious diseases, autoimmune/inflammatory disorders, cancer and reproduction. Emerging functional data supports a mechanism based on a continuum of inhibition to activation through various compound KIR-HLA genotypes in diseases.

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