AUTHOR=Kusnierczyk Piotr 

TITLE=Killer Cell Immunoglobulin-Like Receptor Gene Associations with Autoimmune and Allergic Diseases, Recurrent Spontaneous Abortion, and Neoplasms

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology

VOLUME=4

YEAR=2013

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2013.00008

DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2013.00008

ISSN=1664-3224

ABSTRACT=<p>Killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) are a family of cell surface inhibitory or activating receptors expressed on natural killer cells and some subpopulations of T lymphocytes. <italic>KIR</italic> genes are clustered in the 19q13.4 region and are characterized by both allelic (high numbers of variants) and haplotypic (different numbers of genes for inhibitory and activating receptors on individual chromosomes) polymorphism. This contributes to diverse susceptibility to diseases and other clinical situations. Associations of <italic>KIR</italic> genes, as well as of genes for their ligands, with selected diseases such as psoriasis vulgaris and atopic dermatitis, rheumatoid arthritis, recurrent spontaneous abortion, and non-small cell lung cancer are discussed in the context of NK and T cell functions.</p>