Killer Cell Immunoglobulin Like Receptor 2DS3 (KIR2DS3)

The existence of human inhibitory natural killer (NK) cell receptors for MHC class I molecules (now designated killer cell Ig-like receptors, or KIRs), was inferred from the observation that NK cells killed HLA class I-deficient cell lines.Dohring et al. (1996) identified a KIR2DS3 cDNA, which they called NKAT7. Sequence analysis revealed a structure similar to that of KIR2DS2, with an extracellular domain containing 2 Ig-like domains. The transmembrane region contains a charged lysine residue, and the cytoplasmic tail has only 39 amino acids with no ITIM (immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motif). KIRs with short cytoplasmic tails are associated with NK cell triggering rather than inhibition.The International Radiation Hybrid Mapping Consortium mapped the KIR2DS3 gene to chromosome 19.