Question 5 (2 points): a). (1 point) At 3am on April 28th, you wake up in a cold

Question

Question 5 (2 points): a). (1 point) At 3am on April 28th, you wake up in a cold sweat, as you have just processed the fact, discussed in class while you were texting on your iPhone, that NK receptor alleles are inherited independently of the MHC alleles that they are evolved to recognize. Why, in theory, is this so terrifying? b). (1 point) To calm your fears, you open your lecture notes and read for a while about licensing of NK cells. Comforted, you return to bed and sleep peacefully Why are you reassured?

Explanation / Answer

  NK cells (Natural Killer cells) are lymphocytes which can recognize and kill intracellular pathogens and tumour transformation and form an important component of immunity defense, which can be controlled by MHC (Major histocompatibility complex ) molecules that can be expressed on target cells. But being encoded by polymorphic genes which segregate independently from MHC genes, uniform expression of inhibitory receptors are not seen in NK cells which indicates inheritance is independent which is quite scary as in NK cells self tolerance MHC play a major role But by having knowledge of Licensing one can be reassured as Licensing involves a positive role of self tolerance in NK cells due to which inhibitory receptors can be widely seen even on other immune cells.

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