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. 2016 Jan 19:6:19509.
doi: 10.1038/srep19509.

Factors Affecting Anti-Glycan IgG and IgM Repertoires in Human Serum

Saddam M Muthana  1   2 , Jeffrey C Gildersleeve  1
Affiliations

Factors Affecting Anti-Glycan IgG and IgM Repertoires in Human Serum

Saddam M Muthana et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Serum anti-glycan antibodies play important roles in many immune processes and are of particular interest as biomarkers for many diseases. Changes in anti-glycan antibodies can occur with the onset of disease or in response to stimuli such as pathogens and vaccination. Understanding relationships between anti-glycan antibody repertoires and genetic and environment factors is critical for basic research and clinical applications, but little information is available. In this study we evaluated the effects of age, race, gender, and blood type on anti-glycan antibody profiles in the serum of 135 healthy subjects. As expected, IgG and IgM antibody signals to blood group antigens correlated strongly with blood type. Interestingly, antibodies to other non-ABH glycans, such as the alpha-Gal antigen, also correlated with blood type. A statistically significant decline in IgM signals with age was observed for many antibody subpopulations, but not for IgG. Moreover, statistically significant correlations between race and IgG levels to certain LacNAc-containing glycans were observed. The results have important implications for designing studies and interpreting results in the area of biomarker discovery and for the development of vaccines. The study also highlights the importance of collecting and reporting patient information that could affect serum anti-glycan antibody levels.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Heat maps of IgG
(A) and IgM (B) signals from 135 healthy donors. Subjects are clustered by blood type in the rows. Glycans are organized into families in the columns. Black boxes indicate no measurable signal in our assay.
Figure 2
Figure 2. The distribution (log-transformed base 2) of IgG and IgM antibody signals for 60 array components with relatively high IgG and IgM signals.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Variations in anti-glycan IgG and IgM antibody signals with age.
(A) Box plots show minimum variation in anti-glycan IgG antibody signals. (B) Box plots of the decrease in IgM signals.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Age-related variations in anti-glycan antibodies in apparently healthy individuals.
Bar graphs displaying correlation coefficients for all array components indicate a significant age-related decrease in IgM anti-glycan antibody signals for majority of the carbohydrates on the array in the training set (A) and validation set (B).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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