Description
Leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptors (LIRs) are members of the immunoglobulin superfamily of glycoproteins and are predominantly expressed by monocytes, B cells, dendritic cells, natural killer (NK) cells, peripheral blood leukocytes and tissues such as placenta, lung and liver. Immunoglobulin-like transcript 2 (ILT-2), also known as CD85 or MIR7, is a 650 amino acid glycoprotein that contains a 23 amino acid signal peptide, 4 extracellular C2-type IGSF domains and 4 intracellular ITIM motifs. ILT-2 can bind major histocompatability (MHC) class I molecules and inhibit cell termination by natural killer (NK) and T cells, and inhibit Ca2+ mobilization in myeloid cells triggered through the B cell antigen receptor and histocompatibility leukocyte antigens (HLA)-DR. ILT-2 contains four putative cytoplasmic tyrosine-based inhibitory motifs and upon tyrosine phosphorylation, associates with the tyrosine phosphatase SHP-1