Biologic variation of human serum immunoglobulin concentrations: Sex-age specific effects

Abstract

Concentrations of serum immunoglobulins provide clinically useful parameters of immunologic or inflammatory diseases. Valid interpretations of these data require recognition of biologic variations which exist throughout the life-span of the individual. The most important of these variables are sex, age and race. The present study reports the sex-age specific changes in serum immunoglobulin concentrations in 3213 unselected individuals from 5 to 94 yr of age from a community study. Evaluation of biologic differences was accomplished by multiple linear regression on loge transformed data.IgG and IgA concentrations increased with age with slight but significant differences between the sexes. Females had higher serum levels of IgG and lower levels of IgA than males. IgM levels did not change with age and were significantly higher in females than in males. None of the immunoglobulin concentrations decreased with age, nor was there a change in variability. These observations document significant biologic variations which occur in immunoglobulin concentrations and are the first data available based on an unbiased community sample.