Leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptors

The leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptors (LILR) are a family of receptors possessing extracellular immunoglobulin domains. They are also known as CD85, ILTs and LIR, and can exert immunomodulatory effects on a wide range of immune cells. The human genes encoding these receptors are found in a gene cluster at chromosomal region 19q13.4.

They include


 * LILRA1
 * LILRA2
 * LILRA3
 * LILRA4
 * LILRA5
 * LILRA6
 * LILRB1
 * LILRB2
 * LILRB3
 * LILRB4
 * LILRB5
 * LILRB6 or LILRA6
 * LILRB7 or LILRA5

A subset of LILR recognise MHC class I (also known as HLA class I in humans). The LILR family is a cluster of paired receptors with both activating and inhibitory functions. Of these, the inhibitory receptors LILRB1 and LILRB2 show a broad specificity for classical and non-classical MHC alleles with preferential binding to b2m-associated complexes. In contrast, the activating receptors LILRA1 and LILRA3 prefer b2m-independent free heavy chains of MHC class I, and in particular HLA-C alleles.