RESUMEN
PURPOSE: Rh antigens can provoke severe alloimmune reactions, particularly in high-risk transfusion contexts, such as sickle cell disease. Rh antigens are encoded by the paralogs, RHD and RHCE, located in one of the most complex genetic loci. Our goal was to characterize RH genetic variation in multi-ethnic cohorts, with the focus on detecting RH structural variation (SV). METHODS: We customized analytical methods to estimate paralog-specific copy number from next-generation sequencing (NGS) data. We applied these methods to clinically characterized samples, including four World Health Organization (WHO) genotyping references and 1135 Asian and Native American blood donors. Subsequently, we surveyed 1715 African American samples from the Jackson Heart Study. RESULTS: Most samples in each dataset exhibited SV. SV detection enabled prediction of the immunogenic RhD and RhC antigens in concordance (>99%) with serological phenotyping. RhC antigen expression was associated with exon 2 hybrid alleles (RHCE*CE-D(2)-CE). Clinically relevant exon 4-7 hybrid alleles (RHD*D-CE(4-7)-D) and exon 9 hybrid alleles (RHCE*CE-D(9)-CE) were prevalent in African Americans. CONCLUSION: This study shows custom NGS methods can accurately detect RH SV, and that SV is important to inform prediction of relevant RH alleles. Additionally, this study provides the first large NGS survey of RH alleles in African Americans.
Asunto(s)
Anemia de Células Falciformes/genética , Genómica , Secuenciación de Nucleótidos de Alto Rendimiento , Sistema del Grupo Sanguíneo Rh-Hr/genética , Negro o Afroamericano/genética , Alelos , Anemia de Células Falciformes/epidemiología , Anemia de Células Falciformes/fisiopatología , Pueblo Asiatico/genética , Variaciones en el Número de Copia de ADN/genética , Etnicidad/genética , Femenino , Variación Estructural del Genoma/genética , Humanos , Indígenas Norteamericanos/genética , Masculino , Sistema del Grupo Sanguíneo Rh-Hr/química , Sistema del Grupo Sanguíneo Rh-Hr/inmunología , Organización Mundial de la SaludRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: The coagulation protein von Willebrand Factor (VWF) is known to be elevated in pregnancy. However, the timing and nature of changes in VWF and associated parameters throughout pregnancy are not well understood. OBJECTIVES: To better understand the changes in VWF provoked by pregnancy, we studied VWF-associated parameters in samples collected over the course of healthy pregnancies. METHODS: We measured VWF antigen (VWF:Ag), VWF propeptide (VWFpp), Factor VIII (FVIII), and ADAMTS13 activity in samples collected from 46 women during pregnancy and at non-pregnant baseline. We also characterized pregnant vs. non-pregnant VWF multimer structure in 21 pregnancies, and performed isoelectric focusing (IEF) of VWF in two pregnancies which had samples from multiple trimesters. RESULTS: VWF:Ag and FVIII levels were significantly increased during pregnancy. ADAMTS13 activity was unchanged. VWFpp levels increased much later in pregnancy than VWF:Ag, resulting in a progressive decrease in VWFpp:Ag ratios. FVIII:VWF ratios also decreased in pregnancy. Most pregnancies exhibited a clear loss of larger VWF multimers and altered VWF triplet structure. Further evidence of acquired VWF qualitative changes in pregnancy was found in progressive, reversible shifts in VWF IEF patterns over gestation. CONCLUSIONS: These data support a new view of pregnancy in which VWF can acquire qualitative changes associated with advancing gestational age. Modeling supports a scenario in which both increased VWF production and doubling of the VWF half-life would account for the data observed. We propose that gestation induces a prolongation in VWF survival, which likely contributes to increased total VWF levels and altered VWF structure.