Potential Roles of Siglecs in the Regulation of Allo-Immune Reaction

Siglecs are mammalian sialic acid (Sia) recognizing immuno-globulin-like receptors expressed across the major leukocyte lineages, and function to recognize ubiquitous Sia epitopes on the cell surface. Many Siglecs are inhibitory receptors expressed on innate immune cells, they also have a role in maintaining B cell tolerance as well as modulating the activation of conventional and plasmocytic dendritic cells. Through these and other roles they contribute directly and indirectly to the regulation of T cell function. Siglecs have been identified to play key roles in several forms of blood cancers, autoimmune and infection deceases. So far as we know, there's no Siglecs related research works on solid organ transplantation. In this review, we describe our understanding of the potential roles of Siglecs in the regulation of immune cell function, which may be crosslinked to allo-rejection and ischemia-reperfusion injury.