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The higher frequency of IgA deficiency among Swedish twins is not explained by HLA haplotypes

Genes & Immunity volume 16, pages 199–205 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Serum immunoglobulin A (IgA) concentrations were determined in 12 600 adult Swedish twins, applying a high-throughput reverse-phase protein microarray technique. The prevalence of IgA deficiency (IgAD) was found to be 1:241 in monozygotic (MZ) twins and 1:198 in dizygotic (DZ) twins. Hence, the prevalence in twins is markedly elevated as compared with the normal Swedish adult population (1:600). The twins did not show a difference in the frequency of HLA haplotypes in comparison with almost 40 000 healthy Swedish controls. As expected, the risk-conveying HLA alleles A*01, B*08 and DRB1*01 were overrepresented among the IgAD twins and were also associated with significantly lower mean serum IgA concentrations in the twin cohort. In contrast, significantly higher mean IgA concentrations were found among individuals carrying the protective HLA alleles B*07 and DRB1*15. Exome sequencing data from two MZ twin pairs discordant for the deficiency showed no differences between the siblings. Model fitting analyses derived a heritability of 35% and indicate that genetic influences are modestly important for IgAD. The probandwise concordance rates for IgAD were found to be 31% for MZ and 13% for DZ twins.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the study participants for contributing to our research. We thank the FIMM High Throughput Biomedicine Unit for technical assistance. The work was sponsored by the Theme center for inflammatory diseases, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm County Council and the Swedish Research Council. TwinGene is supported by the Swedish Research Council (M-2005 1112), GenomEUtwin (EU/QLRT-2001-01254; QLG2-CT-2002-01254), NIH DK U01-066134, The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) and the Heart and Lung foundation (no. 20070481).

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  1. Division of Clinical Immunology, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge, Stockholm, Sweden

    M Frankowiack, C K Lim & L Hammarström

  2. Institute for Molecular Medicine, Finland FIMM, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    R-M Kovanen & G A Repasky

  3. Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    C Song & N L Pedersen

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  1. M Frankowiack
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Frankowiack, M., Kovanen, RM., Repasky, G. et al. The higher frequency of IgA deficiency among Swedish twins is not explained by HLA haplotypes. Genes Immun 16, 199–205 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/gene.2014.78

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