Mannose-binding lectin (MBL) is considered an acute phase protein with important role in
the first line of defense of the innate immune system, whose serum levels are genetically
determined. The MBL activates the lectin pathway of complement, and mediate the
phagocytosis of microorganisms and opsonization. Several studies have associated serum
levels of MBL to susceptibility or resistance to infectious agents including the
Mycobacterium tuberculosis, causative agent of human tuberculosis. Aiming to evaluate
the occurrence of a possible association between MBL gene polymorphisms and
tuberculosis, it was evaluated the frequencies of mutations in exon 1 of MBL gene in a
group of 167 TB patients, divided into 3 groups: patients with pulmonary tuberculosis, with
extrapulmonary tuberculosis, patients with multiresistant tuberculosis to drugs and the
control group with 159 health professionals. The identification of alleles MBL*A, *B, *C
and *D was performed by polymerase chain reaction, using specific sequences of primers
and subsequent enzymatic digestion. The analysis of allelic and genotypic frequencies of
exon 1 did not show any significant difference between patients with tuberculosis and
control group (p> 0.05). There were no significant associations between groups of
pulmonary tuberculosis, extrapulmonary tuberculosis and multidrug drug among
themselves and when connected to the control group. Data from our study showed no
evidence of any influence of variations in the exon 1 of MBL gene in active tuberculosis,
suggesting that the gene polymorphism has no influence on susceptibility to tuberculosis.
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