Mast cell and immune inhibitory receptors.

Modulation by balancing activating and inhibitory receptors constitutes an important mechanism for regulating immune responses. Cells that are activated following ligation of receptors bearing immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motifs (ITAMs) can be negatively regulated by other receptors bearing immuno-receptor tyrosine-based inhibition motifs (ITIMs). Human mast cells (MCs) are the major effector cells of type I hypersensitivity and important participants in a number of disease processes. Antigen-mediated aggregation of IgE bound to its high-affinity receptor on MCs initiates a complex series of biochemical events leading to MC activation. With great detailed description and analysis of several inhibitory receptors on human MCs, a central paradigm of negative regulation of human MC activation by these receptors has emerged.