Article: A Mannose-Binding Lectin-Defective Haplotype Is a Risk Factor for Gastric Cancer

To the Editor:

El-Omar et al. (1) reported that interleukin (IL)-1 gene cluster variants that enhance the production of IL-1β (a powerful inhibitor of gastric acid secretion) increase the risk of gastric cancer in Helicobacter pylori (HP)-infected patients. IL-1β production is down-regulated by mannose-binding lectin (MBL) (2 ), an acute-phase glycoprotein that has a high affinity for gram-negative lipopolysaccharide and exerts immunological activity (3,4). Variants in the promoter, the 5'UTR, and exon 1 of the MBL2 gene reduce the synthesis and activity of MBL (5).

To assess the relationships between MBL2 gene variants and HP-related gastric cancer, we analyzed the whole coding ...

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