Signal Transduction by the Receptor with High Affinity for IgE

Since the last International Congress of Immunology in 1989, there has been a gratifyingly productive burst of activity in the field of Fc receptors. Advances in two aspects that have particularly interested our own laboratory are the relationship of the structure of the receptors to their function, and on the molecular phenomena that account for the early cellular events that are stimulated by these receptors. Here we describe our own research on these two subjects and review briefly the work of others. We focus on the receptor with high affinity for IgE (FcεRI), but where appropriate consider other Fc receptors also.