Decay of the Stress-Induced Ligand MICA Is Controlled by the Expression of an Alternative 3' Untranslated Region.

Recognition of the human stress-induced ligand MHC class I polypeptide-related sequence A (MICA) by the receptor NKG2D expressed on NK cells leads to NK cell-mediated killing of the target cells. Hence, the expression of MICA must be tightly regulated, and its cell surface expression needs to be quickly downregulated to avoid inappropriate activation of immune cells. In this article, we describe a transcript variant of human MICA that has not yet been studied, which contains a 3' untranslated region of 119 nt instead of 174.