Cloning of human NK cells and macrophages carbohydrate receptors

淋巴细胞，也称为白色血细胞，对所有个体的健康都很重要，因为这些细胞抵抗微生物的感染。淋巴细胞通过细胞表面的分子获得环境信息，并与其他细胞进行信息交流。我们正在研究在不同淋巴细胞表面发现的一组分子，这些分子结合不同的糖，并且还表征了与碳水化合物相互作用的新细胞表面分子。这些研究将检查与糖相互作用的分子的结构，以了解这些分子如何向淋巴细胞传递信息，以触发这些细胞在免疫反应中执行的各种功能。我们将分离这些基因，并更详细地研究它们的功能。细胞表面碳水化合物受体代表了几个不同的分子家族，这些分子很可能在免疫反应中发挥重要作用。研究这些淋巴细胞表面分子的潜在意义在于确定这些分子的功能特性，其结果将使我们对参与免疫应答产生的分子机制、免疫缺陷和自身免疫的机制有新的认识。

Lymphocytes, also known as white blood cells, are important for the well being of all individuals as these are the cells which fight infection by microorganisms. The lymphocyte gets its information about enviroment and communicates with other cells using molecules on the cell surface. We are examining a group of molecules found on the surface of different lymphocytes which bind different sugars, and also to characterised new cell surface molecules that interact with carbohydrates. These studies will examine the structure of the the molecules that interact with with sugars, in order to understand how these give messages to the lymphocyte to trigger various functions that these cell perform in the immune response. We will isolate the genes for these and study their function in greater detail. The cell surface carbohydrate receptors represents several different families of molecules, it is highly likely that these have important roles in the immune response. The potential significance of studying these lymphocyte cell surface molecules is in defining the functional properties of these molecules, the results of which will give us novel insights into the molecular mechanisms involved in the generation of immune responses, the mechanism of immuno deficiency and autoimmunity.