Killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor gene cluster predisposes to susceptibility to B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Chinese children.

B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) is the most common malignancy in children. Killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) are mainly expressed on natural killer (NK) cells and regulate killing of cancer cells. To investigate the possible association of genes with B-ALL in Chinese children, we used polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP) to determine the genotypes of 137 B-ALL patients and 288 healthy children of Chinese Han origin. Herein we report no significant difference in the carrying frequency of individual genes and haplotypes between patients and controls; however, individuals carrying genotypes were more frequent in the B-ALL group compared with healthy controls (11.7% vs. 5.9%, =0.038). In addition, the centromeric gene cluster, , was significantly increased in the B-ALL group compared with healthy controls (13.9% vs. 7.3%, =0.030). These data suggest that the genotype and centromeric gene cluster (KIR2DS2-2DL2-2DS3-2DL5) might predispose to susceptibility to B-ALL in Chinese children.