MHC class I polypeptide-related sequence B

UniProtKB accession:  Q29980

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UniProtKB description:  Widely expressed membrane-bound protein which acts as a ligand to stimulate an activating receptor KLRK1/NKG2D, expressed on the surface of essentially all human natural killer (NK), gammadelta T and CD8+ alphabeta T-cells (PubMed:11777960, PubMed:11491531). Up-regulated in stressed conditions, such as viral and bacterial infections or DNA damage response, serves as signal of cellular stress, and engagement of KLRK1/NKG2D by MICA triggers NK-cells resulting in a range of immune effector functions, such as cytotoxicity and cytokine production.