MBL2 and hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia, familial, 4: The possible explanation for the association between this severe MBL deficiency and being HIV positive in our study could be that the low MBL levels may indicate that there is consumption of the MBL protein molecule when it engages in opsonic clearance of the HIV virus, leading to MBL consumption [82] and not accumulation as proposed by others [39, 86].