Certain Killer immunoglobulin like receptor (KIR)/ KIR HLA class I ligand genotypes influence NK antitumor activity in acute myelogenous leukemia but not in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. A case control leukemia association study

Amac: Dogal oldurucu (NK) hucre fonksiyonu temel olarak oldurucu immunoglobulin-benzeri reseptor (KIR) yuzey ifadesi ve bunlarin ilgili liganda baglanmasi ile iliskilidir. Bu calismanin amaci KIR, HLA sinif I ligandlar ve KIR/ligand iliskisinin akut lenfoblastik losemi (ALL), akut myeloid losemi (AML) ve kronik myeloid losemi (KML) olusumu ile iliskisini arastirmaktir. Materials and Methods: The KIR/HLA I genotypes of 82 patients with leukemia (ALL, n=52; AML, n=17; and CML, n=13) were determined by PCR-SSP method and compared with genotypes of healthy controls (n=126). Results: KIR genotype frequency differed significantly between myelogenous leukemia patients and healthy controls for KIR2DL5A (17.6% vs. 47.7%, p=0.02), KIR3DS1 (17.6% vs. 47.6%, p=0.02), and KIR2DS4*001 (36.6% vs. 20.2%, p=0.017). The incidence of homozygous HLA-BBw4 (31.0% vs. 12.5%, p=0.042) and HLA-Bw4Thr80 Thr80 (13.0% vs. 1.2%, p=0.01) was significantly elevated in myeloid leukemia patients compared to healthy controls. KIR/HLA class I ligand profile KIR3DS1(+)/L (-) was decreased and KIR3DL2(+)/HLA-A3/11(-) was increased among myeloid leukemia cases compared to controls. Conclusion: These data suggest that the activity of NK cells as determined by inherited KIR/HLA class I ligand polymorphisms influences the susceptibility to myelogenous leukemia, but not to lymphoblastic leukemia. Additionally, the KIR genotype characterized by the absence of the inhibitory KIR2DL2 and the activating KIR2DS2 and KIR2DS3 (ID2) was found at a lower frequency in patients compared to controls, which confirmed the need for complex analysis based on all possible KIR/HLA class I ligand polymorphism combinations.