Patients with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome have normal IgG2 levels

The Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome (WAS) in humans has a number of similarities to the immunodeficiencies found in CBA/N mice, including X-chromosome-linked inheritance, inability to produce antibodies to various carbohydrate antigens, susceptibility to various bacterial infections, and an imbalance in B lymphocyte subpopulations. Moreover, in both man and mice, IgG antibodies to polysaccharides are predominantly, but not exclusively, restricted to a single IgG subclass--IgG2 in man, and IgG3 in the mouse. Because CBA/N mice have a deficiency of IgG3 antibodies and because human IgG2 subclass deficiencies have been generally associated with inability to produce antibodies to carbohydrate antigens, it would seem likely that patients with WAS would have greatly reduced levels of IgG2. Quite to the contrary, the data presented here demonstrate that WAS patients have normal levels of the different IgG subclasses, including IgG2. Thus, inability to produce antibodies to carbohydrates is not always associated with IgG2 subclass deficiency.