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Immunology

Identification of natural killer cell receptor phenotypes associated with leukemia

Leukemia volume 18, pages 2002–2007 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

Natural killer (NK) cells play a key role in defense against tumor cells that have the capacity to downregulate human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I expression. It has been reported that leukemic cells can have downregulated expression of HLA class I molecules. The polymorphic nature of NK cell receptor (NKR) genes generates diverse repertoires in the human population, which display specificity in the innate immune response. In the present study, 11 KIR and two CD94/NKG2 receptors were genotyped by PCR-SSP in 96 leukemic patients and 148 healthy Caucasians. Here, we report a significant increased frequency of the more inhibitory AB killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) phenotype in leukemic patients compared to the controls (31.1% in healthy controls vs 51.0% in leukemic patients, Pc=0.002), which is related to the high prevalence of the inhibitory KIR2DL2 in this population (Pc=0.007). Moreover, two specific KIR phenotypes AB1 and AB9, including all inhibitory KIRs, were significantly associated with leukemic patients. Our study suggests that an important percentage of leukemic patients express a KIR phenotype in favor of escape from NK cell immunity.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully thank all volunteers who donated blood samples for this study. We wish to thank the biomedical student Tina Lamberts for help in genotyping KIRs and Brigitte Guns for editing of the manuscript. This work was supported by a grant from the Scientific Fund W Gepts AZ-VUB. We also thank the voluntary organization ‘Mensen Helpen Mensen’ for their generous gifts and their support to cancer patients.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. HLA Laboratory, Academisch ziekenhuis-Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium

    S Verheyden & C Demanet

  2. Department of Hematology, Institut Jules Bordet, Brussels, Belgium

    M Bernier

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  1. S Verheyden
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  2. M Bernier
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  3. C Demanet
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Correspondence to C Demanet.

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Verheyden, S., Bernier, M. & Demanet, C. Identification of natural killer cell receptor phenotypes associated with leukemia. Leukemia 18, 2002–2007 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2403525

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