Platelet & Granulocyte Alloantigen Typing Using Sequence-Specific Primer (SSP) PCR Amplification

A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification technique has been investigated for the phenotyping of two medically important polymorphic loci: the platelet alloantigen marker HPA1 and the granulocyte alloantigen marker NA. HPA1 phenotyping is important in predicting the development of alloimmune thrombocytopenia (Metcalfe & Waters 1993). NA phenotyping similarly facilitates the prediction of allo- & autoimmune neutropenia (Stein et al 1994). Both systems have been previously phenotyped using serological techniques which require isolation of specific cell types from blood samples — a method which is particularly difficult with fetal or neonatal samples and requires reagents of limited availability. In this study, the usefulness of each locus in paternity analysis was assessed by studying false family trios constructed by using an unrelated individual as the putative father. Twenty five meioses in the form of the mother: child pairs in the above trios were analysed for mutations and mode of inheritance. A population database of 60 Caucasians was analysed for any deviation from Hardy Weinberg equilibrium.