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Blood, Vol. 93 No. 9 (May 1), 1999:
pp. 2959-2967
From the Departments of Pediatrics and Pathology, Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.
The human platelet alloantigen 1 system (HPA-1) is determined by a
polymorphism at position 33 in the N-terminus of human glycoprotein
IIIa (GPIIIa). This naturally occurring substitution creates a
conformation in the HPA-1a allelic form that can be antigenic when
presented to an individual expressing the HPA-1b form. Anti-HPA-1a
antibodies generated by this immune response can lead to the
destruction of platelets, as seen in the clinical disorders, neonatal
alloimmune thrombocytopenia (NAIT) and posttransfusion purpura (PTP).
To understand better the structural requirements for recognition by
these pathogenic antibodies, we investigated the N-terminal 66 amino
acids from the HPA-1a form of human GPIIIa and the analogous amino
acids from the nonimmunogenic murine homolog. Our objectives were to
define further the boundaries of the HPA-1a epitope(s) in the
N-terminus of human GPIIIa, to isolate the murine 5' nucleotide
sequence and compare the deduced murine N-terminal sequence to that of
human, and to mutate the murine sequence systematically to include an
HPA-1a epitope(s). Murine amino acids that differed from human were
changed by site-directed mutagenesis to the analogous residues in the
HPA-1a form of human GPIIIa, starting and radiating from murine
position 33 (site of human polymorphism). This systematic approach
allowed us to pinpoint amino acids critical to a conformation recognized by anti-HPA-1a antibodies. Our results show that an HPA-1a
epitope can be created within the N-terminus of murine GPIIIa and raise
the possibility that murine models of HPA-1a sensitization can be developed.
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