PMID: 3748797Jan 1, 1986Paper

Hereditary elliptocytosis: clinical, morphological and biochemical studies of 38 cases

Nouvelle Revue Française D'hématologie
D DhermyP Boivin

Abstract

We report clinical, morphological and biochemical studies performed on 38 cases of hereditary elliptocytosis (HE). The major determinant of membrane shape and stability is a proteinaceous meshwork named membrane skeleton, composed mainly of spectrin, actin, protein 4.1 and ankyrin. Spectrin is a heterodimer composed of two chains alpha and beta. Two spectrin dimers associate head to head to form a tetramer. Spectrin tetramers are cross-linked by actin and protein 4.1 to form the skeletal meshwork. We observed two types of membrane defects in the 38 patients studied: 24 patients (13 kindreds) exhibited spectrin self-association defect (type I HE) and 14 patients (6 kindreds) displayed deficiency in protein 4.1. A mutation in the spectrin chain was mostly found in the cases of type I HE. These mutations were depicted on tryptic digest patterns of spectrin. Three pathological variants were thus identified and characterized by the appearance of an abnormal peptide, with a molecular weight of either 74,000 or 65,000, or 46,000 daltons. In one family, the spectrin self-association defect was related to a shortened spectrin beta chain. Deficiency in protein 4.1 was found in 14 patients by means of polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of...Continue Reading

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