Binding of Soluble KIR-Fc Fusion Proteins to HLA Class I

Individual natural killer cells express diverse combinations of cell surface receptors, including members of the killer cell immunoglobulin (Ig)-like receptor (KIR) family and of the CD94/NKG2 receptor type. Thus, it is often difficult to assign a precise ligand specificity to any given receptor on an NK cell. This difficulty can be circumvented by using an assay that detects direct binding of soluble forms of individual KIR to transfected cell lines that express single HLA class I allotypes.