In type 2B von Willebrand disease, there is spontaneous binding of mutated von Willebrand factor (VWF) multimers to platelets. Here we report a family in which severe thrombocytopenia may also be linked to abnormal megakaryocytopoiesis. A heterozygous mutation in the VWF A1 domain gave a R1308P substitution in an interactive site for glycoprotein Ib␣ (GPIb␣). Electron microscopy showed clusters of platelets in close contact. Binding of antibodies to the GPIb␣ N-terminal domain was decreased, whereas GPIX and GPV were normally detected. In Western blotting (WB), GPIb␣, ␣IIb, and 3 were normally present. Proteins involved in Ca 2؉ homeostasis were analyzed by quantitating platelet mRNA or by WB. Plasma membrane Ca 2؉ ATPase (PMCA)-4b and type III inositol trisphosphate receptor (InsP 3 -R3) were selectively increased. The presence of degradation products of polyadenosine diphosphate (ADP)-ribose polymerase protein (PARP) suggested ongoing caspase-3 activity. These were findings typical of immature normal megakaryocytes cultured from peripheral blood CD34 ؉ cells with TPO. Significantly, megakaryocytes from the patients in culture produced self-associated and interwoven proplatelets. Immunolocalization showed VWF not only associated with platelets, but already on the megakaryocyte surface and within internal channels. In this family, type 2B VWD is clearly associated with abnormal platelet production.
IntroductionVon Willebrand disease (VWD) is the most common inherited disorder of the platelet-vessel wall interaction and involves both quantitative and qualitative defects of von Willebrand factor (VWF), a crucial mediator of platelet function and carrier of the FVIII protein. In type 1 and type 3 VWD, deficiencies or absence of VWF protein are responsible for the bleeding syndrome, but in type 2 disease a functionally abnormal protein or the specific lack of large multimers account for the VWD phenotype. 1,2 In hemostasis, glycoprotein Ib␣ (GPIb␣) mediates platelet attachment to exposed subendothelium by binding through its N-terminus to the A1 domain of VWF exposed within the subendothelial matrix. 3,4 In healthy subjects, soluble VWF multimers in plasma fail to gain access to their binding site on GPIb␣, accessibility being controlled by a disulfide-linked double-loop region just below the leucine-rich repeats of GPIb␣. 5 In type 2B VWD, mutations giving rise to a selective number of amino acid substitutions in the A1 domain provide gain of function to the VWF multimers which then spontaneously bind to platelets in suspension through a direct interaction with GPIb␣. [6][7][8] This often results in the loss of the largest multimers from plasma, although these may be at least partially preserved in some cases. 9 Bleeding results from platelets having blocked GPIb function despite a heightened ristocetininduced platelet agglutination in platelet function testing, and perhaps through the relative hemostatic inefficiency of the remaining small multimers. The thrombocytopenia that accompanies this disorder in some, a...