Tuberculosis (TB) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The high incidence is still found in Taiwan. There is strong evidence that host genes influence individual susceptibility to tuberculosis. Young children, like immunocompromised patients, once infected are at increased risk for TB disease and progression to extrapulmonary disease. Thus far, to identify the genes responsible for the variation in the human susceptibility/resistance to TB has remained elusive. Mannose-binding lectin (MBL) activates the complement system in an antibody-independent manner, enhances complement-mediated phagocytosis, and plays an important role in innate immunity in the regulation of inflammatory cytokine release by monocytes. It is one of the molecules that have been suggested to have a link to human susceptibility or protection against infection. According to some studies (mostly conducted in adult populations) , low levels of MBL associated with variant alleles at the promoter and exon 1 regions of MBL protect against tuberculosis. Other investigators instead claim that protection against the disease is associated with high levels of MBL. In this study we aimed to investigate the relationships between the susceptibility to TB and MBL gene polymorphisms in children with cervical mycobacterial lymphadenitis infected by M. tuberculosis.139 case patients with cervical mycobacterial lymphadenitis and 102 unrelated healthy control subjects were tested by real-time PCR for polymorphisms at the promoter and the exon 1 regions of the MBL gene. Diagnosis of mycobacterial lymphadenitis infected by M. tuberculosis, based on findings of pathological examination of the lymph nodes, was confirmed by acid-fast stain and TB PCR.The frequency of A allele was significantly higher in TB+ patients compared with TB- controls (82.7% vs 72.6%; odds ratio 1.813; p=0.007). The frequency of high-producer MBL2 genotypes (A/A) was higher in TB+ patients than in TB- subjects (70.5% vs 45.1%, odds ratio 2.91, p<0.001), while patients carried the B alleles (A/B and B/B) that have decreased levels of MBL was inversely associated with mycobacterial infectivity (29.5% vs 54.9%; odds ratio 2.910; p<0.001). The frequencies of MBL promoter -550 genotypes also revealed a significant difference between TB+ and TB- groups (p = 0.046), but in contrast, with significantly higher frequency of L/L genotype (of low MBL level) in TB+ patients (34.5% vs 21.6%; odds ratio 1.918; p=0.029). The frequencies of MBL promoter -221 genotypes (X and Y) was similar in TB+ and TB- groups.This study supports the conclusion that MBL can protect or predispose the host to tuberculosis, depending on the host¡¦s haplotype pair.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0831111-002419 |
| Date | 31 August 2011 |
| Creators | Wang, Jui-Chu |
| Contributors | Jiin-Tsuey Cheng, Chung-Lung Cho, Hock-Liew Eng, Jong-Kang Liu |
| Publisher | NSYSU |
| Source Sets | NSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | Cholon |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0831111-002419 |
| Rights | user_define, Copyright information available at source archive |
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