KLRK1 and inflammatory bowel disease: Moreover, studies have shown that MICA is significantly upregulated in the intestinal epithelial cells of patients with Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) and may participate in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) via NKG2D–MICA interactions (Allez et al., 2007; Ge et al., 2011; Muro et al., 2014; Espinoza and Minami, 2018).