Role of KIR typing in donor selection prior to allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: literature review

Natural killer (NK) cells are the first population to recover after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Since the report in 2002 by L. Rugerri et al. showing the effectiveness of NK cell alloreactivity in haploidentical stem cell transplantation, a lot of conflicting studies have appeared about the role of NK alloreactivity in haploidentical and matched unrelated donor transplantations. Current studies demonstrate that the beneficial effects of donor NK alloreactivity are dependent on the transplant protocol – conditioning regimen, graft processing procedure and graft-versus-host disease.