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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2009 Apr 1.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Immunol. 2008 Mar 14;8(4):259–268. doi: 10.1038/nri2276

Figure 1. Activating and inhibitory NK-cell receptors for MCMV.

Figure 1

a. Natural killer (NK) cells from C57BL/6 mice express the DAPl2-associated activating Ly49H receptor, which initiates cell-mediated cytotoxicity (through perforin and granzymes), cytokine production (such as interferon-γ (IFNγ)) and proliferation when these NK cells encounter mouse cytomegalovirus (MCMV)-infected cells that express the viral protein m157 on their cell surface, b. NK cells in certain other strains of mice, such as 129/J mice, have inhibitory receptors such as Ly49l129, which binds to m157 on the cell surface of MCMV-infected cells and dampens the NK-cell response. Ly49l129 binds both host MHC class I ligands and MCMV m157, whereas Ly49H binds only m157 and not host MHC class I molecules. ITAM, immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif; HIM, immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motif.