About CD158b
Killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) are transmembrane glycoproteins expressed by natural killer cells and subsets of T cells. The KIR genes are polymorphic and highly homologous and they are found in a cluster on chromosome 19q13.4 within the 1 Mb leukocyte receptor complex (LRC). The gene content of the KIR gene cluster varies among haplotypes, although several "framework" genes are found in all haplotypes (KIR3DL3, KIR3DP1, KIR3DL4, KIR3DL2). The KIR proteins are classified by the number of extracellular immunoglobulin domains (2D or 3D) and by whether they have a long (L) or short (S) cytoplasmic domain. KIR proteins with the long cytoplasmic domain transduce inhibitory signals upon ligand binding via an immune tyrosine-based inhibitory motif (ITIM), while KIR proteins with the short cytoplasmic domain lack the ITIM motif and instead associate with the TYRO protein tyrosine kinase binding protein to transduce activating signals. The ligands for several KIR proteins are subsets of HLA class I molecules; thus, KIR proteins are thought to play an important role in regulation of the immune response. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]

About Brilliant Ultraviolet 395
Brilliant™ UltraViolet 395 (BUV395) is a UV-emitting base polymer dye that can be excited by the 355 nm ultraViolet laser and collected using a 379/28 bandpass filter. BUV395 has an excitation peak at 348 nm and an emission peak at 395. BUV395's fairly unique excitation and emission spectrum causes relatively little spillover into other common detectors and conflicts with very few other commonly used fluorophores. An alternative to BUV395 for flow cytometry is StarBright UltraViolet 400. This dye is part of the Brilliant™ UltraViolet dye family, developed and sold by BD Biosciences. These dyes were optimized for use with multicolor flow cytometry. BUV395 forms the backbone of the family, as all other members are tandems that use it as the acceptor, thus making them excitable by the same 355 nm UV laser.