MHC class I polypeptide-related sequence A is a protein that in humans is encoded by the MICA gene.
MICA encodes the highly polymorphic MHC (HLA) class I chain-related gene A. The protein product is expressed on the cell surface, although unlike canonical class I molecules does not seem to associate with beta-2-microglobulin. It is thought that MICA functions as a stress-induced antigen that is broadly recognized by NK cells, NKT cells, and most of the subtypes of T cells. MICA is the ligand for NK cell activating receptor NKG2D.
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“Reminiscences, even extensive ones, do not always amount to an autobiography.... For autobiography has to do with time, with sequence and what makes up the continuous flow of life. Here, I am talking of a space, of moments and discontinuities. For even if months and years appear here, it is in the form they have in the moment of recollection. This strange form—it may be called fleeting or eternal—is in neither case the stuff that life is made of.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)