| Research Abstract |
Mannan-binding lectin (MBL) is a C-type serum lectin which is believed to play an important role in innate immunity.It is one of the collectin family which are characterized by having a collagen-like sequence and a carbohydrate recognition domain.Collectin can bind to sugar determinants of several microorganisms, neutralize them and inhibit infection by the of complement activation through the lectin pathway and opsonization by collectin receptors.First we tried to isolate collectin genes in several animal and establish the production system of collectin in E.coli and CHO cells.Next to reveal the role of collectin under the stress condition, we investigated the serum concentration from persons who were given with/without stress.
(1) We isolated and characterized the cDNA encoding bovine and rabbit MBP (Kawai et al., Gene. 1997, Glycobiology. 1998).
(2) We established the high and effective production system of bovine conglutinin and human SP-D and MBP (Eda et al, Biochem. J.1997, Biosci. Biotech. Bioch., 1998., Suzuki, et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 1997, Ohtani et al., J.Immunol. Methods, 1999).
(3) We measured the serum concentration and gene allele of MBP in persons from different groups.We found only the gene mutation of codon 54 in all Japanese population (over 700 samples).Fulminant Hepatitis patient (death group) was seen in low MBP level, in comparison with the patient (survived group).
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