cancers Article Investigation of the Effect of KIR–HLA Pairs on Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Hepatitis C Virus Cirrhotic Patients Takeji Umemura 1,2,3,* , Satoru Joshita 1 , Hiromi Saito 1, Shun-ichi Wakabayashi 1, Hiroyuki Kobayashi 1, Yuki Yamashita 1 , Ayumi Sugiura 1 , Tomoo Yamazaki 1 and Masao Ota 1 1 Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Shinshu University School of Medicine, Matsumoto 390-8621, Nagano, Japan;
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[email protected] (M.O.) 2 Consultation Center for Liver Diseases, Shinshu University Hospital, Matsumoto 390-8621, Nagano, Japan 3 Department of Life Innovation, Shinshu University, Matsumoto 390-8621, Nagano, Japan * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +81-263-37-2634; Fax: +81-263-32-9412 Simple Summary: Natural killer (NK) cells normally respond to tumor cells and virally infected cells by killing them via the innate immune system. However, the functional impairment of NK cells has been observed in hepatocellular carcinoma. The NK-cell phenotype is partially mediated through the binding of killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) with human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I ligands. This study evaluated the involvement of KIR–HLA pairs in hepatocellular Citation: Umemura, T.; Joshita, S.; carcinoma development in 211 patients with hepatitis C virus-associated cirrhosis. HLA-Bw4 and the Saito, H.; Wakabayashi, S.-i.; KIR3DL1+HLA-Bw4 pair were significantly associated with hepatocellular carcinoma onset during a Kobayashi, H.; Yamashita, Y.; Sugiura, median follow-up of 6.6 years, which suggested that functional interactions between KIR and HLA A.; Yamazaki, T.; Ota, M.