Summary
A role for Fcγ receptor in the pathophysiology of thrombosis in APS has been hypothesized.
The polymorphism of this receptor, FcγRIIA H/R131, is associated with the binding
affinity for human IgG2 (i.e. FcγRIIA-H131 isoform has a higher affinity than FcγRIIA-R131). Since anti-β2 glycoprotein I antibodies (anti β2GPI), which play a major pathogenic role in APS, show IgG2 dominant distribution, we investigated the prevalence of receptor isoforms in patients
with anti-phospholipid antibodies (aPL) by a PCR-RFLP method. We studied 100 Caucasian
patients with aPL (57 primary APS, 32 secondary APS to SLE and 11 other diseases with
aPL) and 41 healthy controls. H131/H131, H131/R131 and R131/R131 genotypes were found
in 21 (21%), 50 (50%) and 29 (29%) in the patient group, and 9 (22%), 23 (56%) and
9 (22%) in control group, respectively. Thus there was no statistically significant
difference in the prevalence of each genotype in these groups. None of the clinical
manifestations of primary APS (arterial/venous thrombosis, recurrent pregnancy loss
and thrombocytopenia) was significantly correlated with any FcγRIIA genotype. In conclusion,
FcγRIIA polymorphism did not correlate with the manifestations of APS, and FcγRIIA
genotype is not a genetic marker of APS.