Leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptors
The leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptors (LILR) are a family of receptors possessing extracellular immunoglobulin domains. They are also known as CD85, ILTs and LIR, and can exert immunomodulatory effects on a wide range of immune cells. The human genes encoding these receptors are found in a gene cluster at chromosomal region 19q13.4.
| Leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptors | |
|---|---|
| Identifiers | |
| Symbol | LILR |
| Membranome | 17 |
They include
- LILRA1
- LILRA2
- LILRA3
- LILRA4
- LILRA5
- LILRA6
- LILRB1
- LILRB2
- LILRB3
- LILRB4
- LILRB5
- LILRB6 or LILRA6
- LILRB7 or LILRA5
A subset of LILR recognise MHC class I (also known as HLA class I in humans). The LILR family is a cluster of paired receptors with both activating and inhibitory functions. Of these, the inhibitory receptors LILRB1 and LILRB2 show a broad specificity for classical and non-classical MHC alleles with preferential binding to b2m-associated complexes. In contrast, the activating receptors LILRA1 and LILRA3 prefer b2m-independent free heavy chains of MHC class I, and in particular HLA-C alleles.