Polymorphisms and Serum Level of Mannose-Binding Lectin: An Iranian Survey

Mannose-binding lectin (mbl) is a ca^+2 -dependent collagenous lectin, that is produced by liver and mediates innate immune responses by opsonization of pathogens. the serum level of mbl varies widely among healthy individuals, ranging from 0.05μg/ml (or lower) to over 5μg/ml, mainly depending on genetic variations. this study has examined promoter and exon 1 of mbl2 genotype among 117 iranian healthy blood donors. mbl single nucleotide polymorphisms (snps) were genotyped using polymerase chain reaction (pcr), and serum levels of mbl were quantified using a doubleantibody enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (elisa). results of this study showed that there are two promoter polymorphisms at -550 (h/l variants) and -221 (y/x variants) positions, and three polymorphisms in exon 1 at codon 52 (d allele), 54 (b allele), and 57 (c allele) in this population. b allele was significantly correlated with the lowest serum mbl level. our results also showed that the most frequent genotype was hya/lxa, and the genotype that associated with the highest serum level of mbl was hya/hya. the genotype that causes lowest mbl production in iranian population was lyb/lxa. these results showed some differences compared to that of the other populations. to verfiy the originality of these differences we may need to extend the study to a larger samples of respective populations; meanwhile the importance of a new mutation, nucleotide 101 of mbl2 exon1, reported in the current study should be taken in considerations in terms of its possible pathobiological effects in following studies.