[Back to Issue 6 ToC] [Back to Journal Contents] [Back to Biochemistry (Moscow) Home page]
[View Full Article] [Download Reprint (PDF)]

The Repertoire of Human Antiglycan Antibodies and Its Dynamics in the First Year of Life


N. R. Khasbiullina1,2,a,b*, N. V. Shilova2, M. J. Navakouski2, A. Yu. Nokel2, O. Blixt3, L. O. Kononov1, Yu. A. Knirel1, and N. V. Bovin2

1Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991 Moscow, Russia

2Shemyakin–Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117997 Moscow, Russia

3University of Copenhagen, T4221871 Frederiksberg, Denmark

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received November 23, 2018; Revised March 18, 2019; Accepted March 19, 2019
The repertoire of antiglycan antibodies of peripheral blood was studied using a microarray containing 487 glycan antigens: fragments of mammalian glycans (N- and O-chains of glycoproteins, as well as glycolipids) and also bacterial polysaccharides. The sera samples correspond to the third, sixth, and twelfth months of life. The infants were divided into four groups according to their nutrition type: breast milk, standard formula, and partially or extensively hydrolyzed formula. During the first year of life, the total amount of IgG decreased; presumably, the lifetime of maternal IgG in the newborns’ bloodstream is much greater than is generally assumed. At the same time, the IgM content was low during the first six months and increased significantly by the twelfth month. The antiglycan IgM repertoire of one-year-old infants was still different from that of their mothers, as well as from the repertoire of unrelated donors, in particular, by the absence of antibodies against the Galβ1-3GlcNAc (LeC) disaccharide, which is found in almost all healthy humans. It is noteworthy that the level of IgM of breast-fed infants was significantly lower than that of formula-fed by the twelfth month.
KEY WORDS: natural antibodies, glycans, polysaccharides, bacteria, glycochip, array, infant nutrition, innate immunity

DOI: 10.1134/S0006297919060038