Publications

Health experts emphasize that getting doctors to follow clinical guidelines can save both lives and money. Less attention has been paid to how the guidelines are developed and the variability in the recommendations they include. We examined the quality and content of screening guidelines as a proxy for guidelines in general and found that the source of the guidelines affects their quality. Guidelines with inconsistent recommendations are unlikely to serve patients or physicians well. The creation of an independent organization that would work with multiple stakeholders to develop guidelines holds the potential to improve their quality.

Ly49 receptors in rodents, like KIRs in humans, regulate NK cell activity. Although inhibitory Ly49 receptors clearly recognize MHC-I molecules, ligands for the activating Ly49 receptors are less well defined. Here, we show that the activating Ly49s4 and the inhibitory Ly49i4 receptors recognize nonclassical MHC-I molecules on the rat macrophage cell line R2 (RT1(d)). Listeria infection of R2 macrophages led to increased expression of classical and nonclassical MHC-I molecules. Coincubation of these infected cells with reporter cells expressing Ly49i4 or Ly49s4 increased the reporter cell responses. These responses were blocked by mAb OX18 (anti-MHC-I) and AAS1 (anti-nonclassical MHC-I). IFN-γ treatment of normal R2 cells also increased the MHC-I expression and enhanced the reporter cell responses. These results suggest that activating and inhibitory Ly49 receptors monitor MHC-I expression on Listeria-infected cells.