ABSTRACT
Activating and inhibitory cell surface receptors play important roles in regulation of immune responses. Recent progress has demonstrated that many inhibitory receptors pair with activating, as well as inhibitory, isoforms, both of whose genes are located in small clusters on a chromosome. We and others identified paired activating and inhibitory immunoglobulin-like receptors, designated myeloid-associated immunoglobulin-like receptors (MAIR) (CD300). MAIR is a multigene family consisting of nine genes on a small segment of mouse chromosome 11. MAIR family receptors are preferentially expressed on myeloid cells, including macrophages, dendritic cells, granulocytes, and bone-marrow-derived cultured mast cells, and a subset of B cells and regulate activation of these cells. Thus, MAIR plays an important role in innate immunity mediated by myeloid cells.