We are studying white blood cells, that spontaneously kill tumor cells. These cells are called 'natural killer' cells or 'NK' cells. NK cells have molecules on their surface that recognize the tumors that are killed.
Some receptors initiate killing, but other prevent killing.
The inhibitory receptors bind to surface molecules on tumor cells that are also expressed on normal cells. I MHC antigens. Ly-49 also binds to specific protein portions of the MHC antigens. By preparing soluble peptides corresponding to these regions of the MHC antigens, we have mapped critical residues of amino acid positions 80 and 83. Our findings significantly expand the potential role of NK cells in protection against changes in normal cells.