Tolerant and diverse natural killer cell repertoires in the absence of selection.
Natural killer (NK) cells are innate lymphocytes that participate in the early control of viruses and tumors. The function of NK cells is under tight regulation by two complementary inhibitory receptor families that bind to classical and non-classical HLA class I molecules: the CD94/NKG2A receptors and the killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs). In this mini-review, recent data on the structure of human NK cell receptor repertoires and its relation to functional responses and tolerance to self are discussed. We propose that no active selection is required to generate diverse NK cell repertoires characterized by a dominant expression of receptors with specificity for self-HLA class I. Instead, the primary consequence of interactions with HLA class I molecules is a functional tuning of randomly generated NK cell repertoires.
Andersson
Sandra
S
Center for Infectious Medicine, Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge, Stockholm, Sweden.
Malmberg
Jenny-Ann
JA
Malmberg
Karl-Johan
KJ
D000818:Animals; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007108:Immune Tolerance; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000276:immunology*; D051920:NK Cell Lectin-Like Receptor Subfamily D / Q000378:metabolism; D054340:Receptors, KIR / Q000378:metabolism
D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I; D051920:NK Cell Lectin-Like Receptor Subfamily D; D054340:Receptors, KIR