Association of mannose-binding lectin gene polymorphism with tuberculosis susceptibility and sputum conversion time

Mannose-binding lectin (MBL) plays an important role in innate immunity. The effect of low MBL levels producing variants of MBL2 gene on tuberculosis (TB) has been controversial with some studies reporting it to confer protection against the disease, whereas others estimating a susceptibility relation. Other than conducting a case-control study to evaluate the role of MBL A/B polymorphism on TB, we conducted a longitudinal study to check whether this MBL variant can influence the host response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. A total of 357 TB patients (286 pulmonary TB, 71 extrapulmonary (EP) TB) and 392 healthy controls belonging to same ethnicity were included in the study. We found the mutant allele 'B' allele confers a protective role against TB in our study population. This effect was absent in EP patients. On stratification on the basis of sex, the protective role of the 'B' allele was found to be limited to females only and males reported no significant difference. No effect of MBL A/B polymorphism on sputum conversion time was reported. We conclude that MBL 'B' allele is associated with protection against TB, but no influence was found on sputum conversion rate.