HLA Reduces Killer Cell Ig-like Receptor Expression Level and Frequency in a Humanized Mouse Model

Abstract NK cells use NK cell receptors to be able to recognize and eliminate infected, transformed, and allogeneic cells. Human NK cells are prevented from killing autologous healthy cells by virtue of inhibitory NKRs, primarily killer cell Ig-like receptors (KIR) that bind “self” HLA class I molecules. Individual NK cells stably express a selected set of KIR, but it is currently disputed whether the fraction of NK cells expressing a particular inhibitory KIR is influenced by the presence of the corresponding HLA ligand. The extreme polymorphism of the KIR and HLA loci, with wide-ranging affinities for individual KIR and HLA allele combinations, has made this issue particularly hard to tackle. In this study, we used a transgenic mouse model to investigate the effect of HLA on KIR repertoire and function in the absence of genetic variation inside and outside the KIR locus. These H-2Kb−/− and H-2Db−/− mice lacked ligands for inhibitory Ly49 receptors and were transgenic for HLA-Cw3 and a KIR B haplotype. In this reductionist system, the presence of HLA-Cw3 reduced the frequency of KIR2DL2+ cells, as well as the surface expression levels of KIR2DL2. In addition, in the presence of HLA-Cw3, the frequency of NKG2A+ cells and the surface expression levels of NKG2A were reduced. In line with these findings, both transgene-encoded KIR and endogenous NKG2A contributed to the rejection of cells lacking HLA-Cw3. These findings support the idea that HLA influences the human KIR repertoire.