Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jul;23(3):929-941.
doi: 10.1007/s10238-022-00828-x. Epub 2022 Apr 25.

Gender dimorphism in IgA subclasses in T2-high asthma

Gilda Varricchi #  1   2   3   4 , Remo Poto #  5   6   7 , Bianca Covelli  5 , Gaetano Di Spigna  5 , Maria Rosaria Galdiero  5   6   7   8 , Gianni Marone  5   6   7   8 , Loredana Postiglione  5   6   7 , Giuseppe Spadaro  9   10   11
Affiliations

Gender dimorphism in IgA subclasses in T2-high asthma

Gilda Varricchi et al. Clin Exp Med. 2023 Jul.

Abstract

Immunoglobulin A (Chan in J Allergy Clin Immunol 134:1394-14014e4, 2014), the second most abundant immunoglobulin in serum, plays an important role in mucosal homeostasis. In human serum, there are two subclasses of IgA, IgA1 (≅ 90%) and IgA2 (≅ 10%), transcribed from two distinct heavy chain constant regions. This study evaluated the serum concentrations of total IgA, IgA1, and IgA2, and total IgG, IgG1, IgG2, IgG3, and IgG4 in T2-high asthmatics compared to healthy controls and the presence of gender-related variations of immunoglobulins. Total IgA levels were increased in asthmatics compared to controls. Even more marked was the increase in total IgA in male asthmatics compared to healthy male donors. IgA1 were increased only in male, but not in female asthmatics, compared to controls. Concentrations of IgG2, but not IgG1, IgG3, and IgG4, were reduced in asthmatics compared to controls. IgG4 levels were reduced in female compared to male asthmatics. In female asthmatics, IgA and IgA1 levels were increased in postmenopause compared to premenopause. IgA concentrations were augmented in mild, but not severe asthmatics. A positive correlation was found between IgA levels and the age of patients and an inverse correlation between serum concentrations of IgA2 and IgE in asthmatics. A positive correlation between total IgA or IgA2 and IgG2 was found in asthmatics. These results highlight a gender dimorphism in IgA subclasses in male and female T2-high asthmatics. More adequate consideration of immunological gender disparity in asthma may open new opportunities in personalized medicine by optimizing diagnosis and targeted therapy.

Keywords: Asthma; Gender dimorphism; IgA; IgA1; IgA2; Immunoglobulins.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All authors declared they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Serum concentrations of IgA in healthy controls and asthma patients (a) Serum concentrations of IgA in healthy male controls and asthma patients (b) Serum concentration of IgA1 in healthy male controls and asthma patients (c) Serum concentrations of IgA2 in healthy controls and asthma patients (d) Serum concentrations of IgG2 in healthy controls and asthma patients (e) Data are presented as scatter plots with mean ± SD. Significance was tested with two sided Student’s t test. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Serum concentration of IgA (a), IgA1 (b) and IgG4 (c) in male and female asthma patients. Data are presented as scatter plots with mean ± SD. Significance was tested with two-sided Student’s t test. *p < 0.05; ***p < 0.001
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Serum concentrations of IgA (a), IgA1 (b), and IgA2 (c) in pre- (mean age 33.6 ± 10 years) and postmenopause (mean age 60.3 ± 5.1 years) female asthmatic patients. Data are presented as scatter plots with mean ± SD. Significance was tested with two-sided Student’s t test. **p < 0.01
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Serum concentrations of IgA (a), IgA1 (b), IgA2 (c) and IgE (d) in healthy controls, mild, and severe asthmatics. Data are presented as box plots with medians and interquartile ranges plus whiskers ranging from min to max. Significance was tested using one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s post hoc. *p < 0.05; ****p < 0.0001
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Correlations between serum concentrations of IgA2 and IgE in asthma patients (a) and healthy controls (b). Correlations between serum concentrations of IgA (c) or IgA2 (d) and IgG2 in asthma patients. Significance was tested with Pearson’s correlation method. *p < 0.05; ***p < 0.001
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Chan YC, Ramadani F, Santos AF, et al. Auto-anti-IgE: naturally occurring IgG anti-IgE antibodies may inhibit allergen-induced basophil activation. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2014;134(6):1394–14014e4. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Oliva M, Munoz-Aguirre M, Kim-Hellmuth S et al., The impact of sex on gene expression across human tissues. Science 2020;369(6509). - PMC - PubMed
    1. van Eijk LT, Dorresteijn MJ, Smits P, et al. Gender differences in the innate immune response and vascular reactivity following the administration of endotoxin to human volunteers. Crit Care Med. 2007;35(6):1464–1469. - PubMed
    1. Fish EN. The X-files in immunity: sex-based differences predispose immune responses. Nat Rev Immunol. 2008;8(9):737–744. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Faner R, Gonzalez N, Cruz T, Kalko SG, Agusti A. Systemic inflammatory response to smoking in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: evidence of a gender effect. PLoS ONE. 2014;9(5):e97491. - PMC - PubMed