Hong, H. A.Loubser, A. S.de Assis Rosa, Debra.Naranbhai, Vivek.Carr, William Henry.Paximadis, Maria.Lewis, David A.Tiemessen, Caroline Tanya.Gray, Clive M.2012-11-242012-11-2420112011Hong H. A. et al. 2011. Killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptor genotyping and HLA killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptor-ligand identification by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Tissue Antigens 78 (3), pp. 185–194.0001-2815http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1399-0039.2011.01749.http://hdl.handle.net/10413/7998The effector function of natural killer (NK) cells is modulated by surface expression of a range of killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) that interact with human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I ligands. We describe the use of real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays that allow easy and quick detection of 16 KIR genes and the presence/absence of KIR-ligands based on allelic discrimination at codon 80 in the HLA-A/B Bw4 and HLA-C C1/C2 genes. These methods overcome the tedious and expensive nature of conventional KIR genotyping and HLA class I typing using sequence-specific primer (SSP) PCR, sequence-specific oligonucleotide (SSO) hybridization or sequence-based typing (SBT). Using these two cost-effective assays, we measured the frequencies of KIRs, KIR-ligands and KIR/KIR-ligand pairs in a cohort of Black women recruited in South Africa.enGenotyping.Human leukocyte antigen killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptor-ligand.Killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptor.Real-time polymerase chain reaction.Peer reviewed journal article