Abstract
It is well known that individuals homozygous for a rare silent allele of ADA may experience a severe combined immunodeficiency. By analogy we have investigated the possible relations of normal ADA polymorphism with some conditions (such as asthma and fetomaternal relationship) in which immunological mechanisms may play an important role.179 children with bronchial asthma,46 oouples with unexplained habitual abortion (AB),24 couples with unexplained sterility (ST),229 consecutive newborns (CN) and 93 consecutive low-birth-weight infants (LBW) were studied.The proportion of ADA2-1 phenotype was drastically reduced in asthmatic children (p<0.01) and in AB and ST couples (p<0.02).ADA2-1 phenotype was associated with a significant reduction (p<0.01) in the variability of gestational length in CN;furthermore,the proportion of ADA2-1 was significantly lower in LBW than in CN and normal adults (p<0.05).The present data indicate for the first time that genetic variability due to the "normal" ADA polymorphism may be,at least in part,responsible for the variable behaviour of immunological functions and related pathological conditions; they also provide evidence in favour of a selective advantage of ADA heterozygote. (Work supported by CBR)
Article PDF
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lucarini, N., Lucarelli, P., Gloria-Bottini, F. et al. Adenosinedeaminase (ADA) polymorphism and immunological functions. Pediatr Res 14, 1426 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198012000-00108
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198012000-00108