Fcγ receptor polymorphisms in patients with transient hypogammaglobulinemia of infancy presenting with mild and severe infections.

BACKGROUND: Patients with transient hypogammaglobulinaemia of infancy (THI) may have mild infections or be asymptomatic. About 20% of THI patients have very severe and recurrent infections and receive intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIg) for replacement therapy and infection prophylaxis. It is still not clear why some THI patients are severely symptomatic; it has been suggested that there might be additional immunologic or environmental factors or other co-morbidities.

OBJECTIVE: As an immunological factor, Fcγ receptor polymorphisms (H/H-131, H/R-131 and R/R-131 for FcγIIa; V/V-158, V/F-158 and F/F-158 for FcγRIIIa; NA1/NA1, NA1/NA2 and NA2/NA2 for FcγRIIIb) were analysed in THI patients who had very severe infections and need hospitalisation (treated with IVIg) (n:18) and in THI patients who were asymptomatic or had mild infections (treated with antibiotics or received no medication) (n:25).

RESULTS: Genotypic distributions between two groups did not deviate significantly from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium expectations (p > 0.05) and odds ratios for "disease risk estimate" did not show any dominance for any genotype. Allele frequencies did not show any significant difference between the two groups (p >0.05). The number of infections per year for each Fcγ receptor genotype was not significantly different between both groups.

CONCLUSION: There is no association between the heterogeneous clinical picture of THI patients and Fcγ receptor gene polymorphisms.