A dinucleotide deletion in exon 4 of the PlA2 allelic form of glycoprotein
IIIa: implications for the correlation of serologic versus genotypic
analysis of human platelet alloantigens
B Skogen, R Wang, JG McFarland and PJ Newman
Department of Immunology and Transfusion Medicine, University Hospital of
Tromso, Norway.
Platelets from a patient with a suspected case of posttransfusion purpura
were subjected to alloantigen phenotyping and found to express the PlA1,
but not the PlA2, allelic form of human platelet membrane glycoprotein (GP)
IIIa on the platelet surface. However, genotyping showed unambiguously that
the patient carried the genes for both of these GPIIa alleles. Based on
these results, we postulated that the PlA2 allele was silent, ie, that this
patient was a carrier for Glanzmann thrombasthenia (GT). Quantitative
analysis of GPIIb-IIIa surface expression showed only 20,000 GPIIb-IIIa
receptors/platelet, approximately half of the value obtained with control
platelets. Southern blot analysis showed no large deletions or insertions
within the GPIIIa gene, and amplification of all 14 exons encoding GPIIIa
resulted in the production of normal sized polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
products in all cases. DNA-sequence analysis showed an AG dinucleotide
deletion affecting codons 210 and 211 within exon 4 of the GPIIIa gene,
leading to a change in reading frame and the creation of a stop codon 38
nucleotides down-stream. The predicted truncated protein consists of only
the first 223 of the normal 762 amino acids, thus accounting for the
failure to express the PlA2 allele on the platelet surface. While
encountered only rarely, carriers of either GT or Bernard Soulier syndrome
that are at the same time heterozygous for human platelet alloantigenic
epitopes found on GPIb, GPIIb, or GPIIIa have the possibility to give
discrepant results when comparing genotypic versus phenotypic analysis. In
such situations, the combination of serologic and DNA-based evaluation
contributes complementary and beneficial diagnostic information than either
one alone are able to provide.
Volume 88,
Issue 10,
pp. 3831-3836,
11/15/1996
Copyright © 1996 by The American Society of Hematology