Given the importance of vascular I/R injury in SSc on the one hand, and the central involvement of the lectin pathway in I/R injury on the other hand, we hypothesized that the presence of MBL deficiency and polymorphisms in the MBL2 and FCN2 genes are associated with a reduced risk of SSc and less severe disease manifestations in SSc patients. Here, FCN2 is linked to systemic sclerosis.