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There is an emerging interest for mannose-binding lectin (MBL) due to its role in innate immunity. In this survey we present a mixture of old and new data describing the effect MBL polymorphisms may have on the level and function of the molecule. Three single nucleotide substitutions in exon 1 of the mbl2 gene cause a dominant decrease of functional MBL in the circulation. Additionally, promoter variants influence expression of MBL. It has been assumed that the structural variant alleles may disrupt the assembly of MBL trimers or accelerate the degradation of the protein, thereby causing the decrease in MBL serum concentrations. We have analysed 1183 different sera in a double sandwich antibody ELISA using the same antibody to capture and detect MBL and find the same results as have been presented previously showing that different MBL promoter alleles have profound effect of on the MBL serum …