Response to Oswald et al.: ST6Gal1 in plasma is dispensable for IgG sialylation

Abstract

The presence or absence of terminal sialic acid residues in the sugar moiety attached to the Fc-domain of IgG molecules modulates IgG activity and is associated with autoimmune or infection related inflammation. In a recent paper, Oswald and colleagues suggest that IgG sialylation may occur post IgG secretion from plasma cells, which would be a major issue for therapeutic antibodies injected into patients. In contrast, we argue that previous work rather demonstrates that IgG sialylation occurs within B cells and that the experimental system used by the authors is not suitable to address this critical question.

Keywords: antibody; autoimmunity; sialic acid.