Breaking tolerance to self, circulating natural killer cells expressing inhibitory KIR for non-self HLA exhibit effector function after T cell-depleted allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation.

ABSTRACT: Alloreactive natural killer (NK) cells are an important influence on hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) outcome. In HLA-mismatched HSCT, alloreactivity occurs when licensed donor NK cells expressing inhibitory killer Ig-like receptors (KIR) for donor MHC class I ligands recognize the lack of the class I ligands in the mismatched recipient ("missing self"). Studies in HLA-matched HSCT, however, have also demonstrated improved outcome in patients lacking class I ligands for donor inhibitory KIR ("missing ligand"), indicating that classically nonlicensed donor NK cells expressing KIR for non-self MHC class I ligands may exhibit functional competence in HSCT. We examined NK function in 16 recipients of T cell-depleted allografts from HLA-identical or KIR-ligand matched donors after

SUBMITTER: Yu J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2670800 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature