Journal article
Mutations in tropomyosin 4 underlie a rare form of human macrothrombocytopenia
Irina Pleines, Joanne Woods, Stephane Chappaz, Verity Kew, Nicola Foad, Jose Ballester-Beltran, Katja Aurbach, Chiara Lincetto, Rachael M Lane, Galina Schevzov, Warren S Alexander, Douglas J Hilton, William J Astle, Kate Downes, Paquita Nurden, Sarah K Westbury, Andrew D Mumford, Samya G Obaji, Peter W Collins, Fabien Delerue Show all
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL INVESTIGATION | AMER SOC CLINICAL INVESTIGATION INC | Published : 2017
DOI: 10.1172/JCI86154
Abstract
Platelets are anuclear cells that are essential for blood clotting. They are produced by large polyploid precursor cells called megakaryocytes. Previous genome-wide association studies in nearly 70,000 individuals indicated that single nucleotide variants (SNVs) in the gene encoding the actin cytoskeletal regulator tropomyosin 4 (TPM4) exert an effect on the count and volume of platelets. Platelet number and volume are independent risk factors for heart attack and stroke. Here, we have identified 2 unrelated families in the BRIDGE Bleeding and Platelet Disorders (BPD) collection who carry a TPM4 variant that causes truncation of the TPM4 protein and segregates with macrothrombocytopenia, a d..
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Awarded by British Heart Foundation
Awarded by MRC Clinical Training Fellowship
Awarded by Australian National Health and Medical Research Council
Awarded by German Research Foundation
Awarded by Medical Research Council
Awarded by National Institute for Health Research
Funding Acknowledgements
The research participants were enrolled in the Biomedical Research Centres/Units Inherited Diseases Genetic Evaluation (BRIDGE) Bleeding and Platelet Disorders (BPD) study (UK REC10/H0304/66). We are grateful to all the donors who allowed us to use their samples for this study. We thank Sofia Papadia from the NIHR BioResource for organizing the recalls of BRIDGE-BPD participants. The genome sequencing of the BRIDGE-BPD participants was supported by the NIHR BioResource-Rare Diseases (to ET, KD, and WHO). The NIHR BioResource-Rare Diseases is responsible for the delivery of the rare diseases pilot phase of the 100,000 Genomes Project and is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR; http://www.nihr.ac.uk). Research in the Ouwehand laboratory also receives funding support from the European Commission, NIHR, Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council (MRC), and British Heart Foundation under numbers RP-PG-0310-1002 and RG/09/12/28096. We are grateful to Janelle E. Collinge for outstanding technical assistance with gene mapping studies. We thank E. Major, S. Ross, T. Carle, T. Gibbs, and S. Green for outstanding animal husbandry assistance, J. Corbin for Advia analysis, and Emma C. Josefsson for the purification of human platelets. Confocal microscopy work on human samples was supported by the Cambridge NIHR Biomedical Research Centre Cell Phenotyping Hub. We thank Jeremy Skepper and Janet Powell of the Cambridge University Advanced Imaging Centre for technical support with electron microscopy imaging. SKW is supported by an MRC Clinical Training Fellowship (MR/K023489/1). ADM receives support from the Bristol NIHR Biomedical Research Unit for Cardiovascular Disease. This work was supported by a Project Grant (no. 575535), a Program Grant (no. 1016647), a Fellowship (1063008 to BTK and 1058344 to WSA), Project Grants (to PWG and ECH), and an Independent Research Institutes Infrastructure Support Scheme Grant (no. 361646) from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council; a fellowship from the Sylvia and Charles Viertel Foundation (to BTK); a start-up grant, a fellowship, and a grant from the German Research Foundation (SFB 688, PL707/1-1 and PL707/2-1 to IP); the Kids' Cancer Project (to PWG); a Fellowship from the European Hematology Association (to MRT) and the British Heart Foundation (PG/13/77/30375 to MRT); NHS Blood and Transplant (to WHO and MRT); the Australian Cancer Research Fund; and a Victorian State Government Operational Infrastructure Support Grant.