Immune Inhibitory Receptors
Jeffrey V. Ravetch,1
Lewis L. Lanier2
With the detailed description and analysis of several inhibitory
receptor systems on lymphoid and myeloid cells, a central paradigm has
emerged in which the pairing of activation and inhibition is necessary
to initiate, amplify, and then terminate immune responses. In some
cases, the activating and inhibitory receptors recognize similar
ligands, and the net outcome is determined by the relative strength of
these opposing signals. The importance of this modulation is
demonstrated by the sometimes fatal autoimmune disorders observed in
mice with targeted disruption of inhibitory receptors. The significance
of these receptors is further evidenced by the conservation of
immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motifs during their evolution.
1 Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and
Immunology, Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10021, USA.
2 Department of Microbiology and Immunology and
Cancer Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, CA
94143, USA.
