Associations of killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors with acute myeloid leukemia in Chinese populations

Many studies have investigated the relationship between KIR, HLA and acute myeloid leukemia (AML), but the results were different in different laboratories, and the data in Chinese population were limited. In this study, the distribution of KIR gene, KIR genotypes, HLA-C groups, HLA-Bw4, and KIR-HLA interaction from 273 healthy participants and 253 AML patients (M0-M6) in southern Chinese Han were determined to investigate the relationships among KIR, HLA and AML. The results showed that the frequencies of 2DS4del in M5 patients were significantly higher than those of the controls (65.0% vs 46.5%, P = 0.0104, OR = 2.135, P < ɑ′). The frequency of KIR genotype BX13 in the healthy controls was significantly higher than that in AML patients (3.7% vs 0%, P = 0.0019, OR = 20.2, P < ɑ′). No other significant differences in the frequencies of KIR, HLA and KIR-HLA interaction were identified between AML patients and controls. Our study suggests that 2DS4del may conduct a susceptibility to AML, and genotype BX13 might conduct a protective effect on AML.