Platelet Membrane Defects in Glanzmann's Thrombasthenia

Platelets from patients with Glanzmann's thrombasthenia have a distinct molecular alteration of the plasma membrane surface, namely decreased amounts of a major glycoprotein designated as IIb (apparent mol wt 142,000). To identify other possible surface defects of thrombasthenic platelets, we labeled the membrane polypeptides of normal and thrombasthenic platelets by two different techniques: lactoperoxidase-catalyzed iodination and galactose oxidase oxidation, followed by reduction with tritiated sodium borohydride. Labeling patterns were determined after the polypeptides were separated by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Before the second dimension was run, platelet samples were incubated with a reducing agent, beta-mercapto-ethanol, to cleave the disulfide bonds of certain glycoproteins; the resulting changes in electrophoretic mobility permitted better resolution of individual molecules. Comparison of the labeled polypeptides of normal and thrombasthenic samples after reduction indicated decreased labeling of two major glycoproteins in thrombasthenic platelets: IIb and III (apparent mol wt 114,000). The relative proportions of radioactivity incorporated by these polypeptides were about 60 and 80% less than control values, respectively. With either Coomassie Blue or periodic acid-Schiff's reagent, glycoprotein III stained much less intensely in thrombasthenic compared to normal samples, indicating that the observed labeling deficit was caused by a decreased concentration of the molecule rather than steric inaccessibility on the membrane surface. Analysis of normal plasma membranes by affinity chromatography showed that glycoprotein IIb has receptors for lectin from Lens culinaris, the common lentil, whereas III does not. We conclude that a characteristic feature of Glanzmann's thrombasthenia is a decreased concentration of two discrete glycoproteins in the platelet plasma membrane.