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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 May 1.
Published in final edited form as: Trends Immunol. 2011 Mar 14;32(5):219–224. doi: 10.1016/j.it.2011.02.003

Figure 3.

Figure 3

Impact of NK cell licensing on the elimination of HIV-1-infected DCs. a) During NK cell development in the bone marrow, inhibitory KIRs expressed on NK cells that interact with a self-MHC class I ligand mediate a potent licensing signal that allows NK cells to emerge as cytolytic killers. b) Licensed NK cells expressing inhibitory KIRs might be more responsive to HIV-1-infected cells that have reduced expression of MHC class I. c) Similarly, licensed NK cells may be more easily inhibited by mature DCs expressing high levels of MHC class I, while licensed NK cells can effectively eliminate immature or infected DCs that have reduced MHC class I expression. (Red arrows indicate an inhibitory signal. Green arrows indicate an activating signal.)