Abstract
Killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) are expressed on natural killer cells and minor subpopulations of thymus-derived (T) lymphocytes. KIRs may have a long cytoplasmic tail and inhibit cell activation upon ligand (HLA class I) binding, or they may have a short cytoplasmic tail and activate a cell after ligand binding. They are encoded by up to 14 genes present in different individuals in different combinations, whence their associations with several human diseases. KIR involvement in the fate of kidney allograft has not been extensively studied; nevertheless some associations had already been noticed. Their results are not concordant: some authors found no effect of KIR genotype, whereas others detected protective effect of KIR2DL2/KIR2DS2 or KIR–KIR ligand mismatch. We found an association of KIR2DS4 gene with acute rejection and a protective effect of KIR2DS5 gene. Interestingly, in patients, whose end-stage renal disease was caused by glomerulonephritis, the effect of KIR2DS4 was stronger than HLA mismatch, whereas opposite was true for recipients with other causes of renal failure.
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Notes
Without family studies, it is difficult to differentiate between AB and BB genotypes, because each KIR gene characteristic for A haplotype may be also present in some B haplotype (Parham 2005). Therefore, non-AA genotypes are frequently denoted as Bx.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and High Education (Poland) Grant No. N401077 31/1819, and by the Ludwik Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy (Wrocław, Poland) Grant No. 14/2013. The author wishes to thank Dr. Izabela Nowak, Dr. Maria Magott-Procelewska, Agnieszka Kowal M.Sci., Maciej Miazga M.Sci., Marta Wagner M.Sci., Wanda Niepiekło-Miniewska M.Sci., Małgorzata Kamińska M.Sci., Dr. Andrzej Wiśniewski, Dr. Edyta Majorczyk, Prof. Marian Klinger, Dr. Wioleta Łuszczek, Prof. Andrzej Pawlik, Prof. Rafał Płoski, Prof. Ewa Barcz, and Dr. David Senitzer for their generous collaboration in the study published by Nowak et al. (2012), as well as the patients and healthy volunteers for blood donation.
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Kuśnierczyk, P. Are Killer Cell Immunoglobulin-Like Receptor Genes Important for the Prediction of Kidney Graft Rejection?. Arch. Immunol. Ther. Exp. 61, 321–325 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00005-013-0225-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00005-013-0225-2