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Blood, 1 March 2002, Vol. 99, No. 5, pp. 1833-1839
TRANSPLANTATION
HPA-1a phenotype-genotype discrepancy reveals a naturally
occurring Arg93Gln substitution in the platelet 3 integrin that
disrupts the HPA-1a epitope
Nicholas A. Watkins,
Elisabeth Schaffner-Reckinger,
David L. Allen,
Graham J. Howkins,
Nicolaas H. C. Brons,
Graham A. Smith,
Paul Metcalfe,
Michael F. Murphy,
Nelly Kieffer, and
Willem H. Ouwehand
From the Department of Haematology, Division of
Transfusion Medicine, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom; the
Laboratoire Franco-Luxembourgeois de Recherche
Biomédicale, (CNRS/CRP-Santé), Luxembourg, Grand-Duchy
of Luxembourg and National Blood Service East Anglia Centre, Cambridge
and Oxford Centre, Oxford, United Kingdom; and the Division of
Haematology, National Institute for Biological Standards and Control,
Potters Bar, United Kingdom.
A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) at position 196 in the 3
integrin causes a Leu33Pro substitution in the mature protein. Alloimmunization against the 3Leu33 form (human platelet antigen [HPA]-1a, PlA1, Zwa) in patients
who are 3Pro33 homozygous (HPA-1b1b,
PlA2A2, Zwbb) causes neonatal
alloimmune thrombocytopenia, posttransfusion purpura, or refractoriness
to platelet transfusion. Studies with recombinant proteins have
demonstrated that amino acids 1 to 66 and 288 to 490 of the 3
integrin contribute to HPA-1a epitope formation. In determining the
HPA-1a status of more than 6000 donors, we identified a donor with an
HPA-1aweak phenotype and an HPA-1a1b genotype. The
platelets from this donor had normal levels of surface IIb 3 but
reacted only weakly with monoclonal and polyclonal anti-HPA-1a by
whole blood enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), flow cytometry,
and sandwich ELISA. We reasoned that an alteration in the primary
nucleotide sequence of the 3Leu33 allele of this donor was
disrupting the HPA-1a epitope. In agreement with this hypothesis,
sequencing platelet RNA-derived IIb and 3 cDNA identified a novel
G/A SNP at position 376 of the 3 integrin that encodes for an
Arg93Gln replacement in the 3Leu33 allele. Coexpression of the
3Leu33Gln93 encoding cDNA in Chinese hamster ovary cells with human
IIb cDNA showed that the surface-expressed IIb 3 reacted
normally with 3 integrin-specific monoclonal antibodies but only
weakly with monoclonal anti-HPA-1a. Our results show that an Arg93Gln
mutation in the 3Leu33 encoding allele disrupts the HPA-1a epitope,
suggesting that Arg93 contributes to the formation of the HPA-1a B-cell epitope.

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