Summary
We further characterised the abnormal factor VIII molecule (factor VIII Leiden) of
a Crm+, mild hemophilia A patient with a factor VIII activity of 0.18 IU/ml and a factor
VIII antigen of 0.95 IU/ml. Mutation analysis of the coding region, promoter and 3’
untranslated region of the factor VIII gene revealed the presence of a C to T substitution
at codon 527. This nucleotide change predicts the replacement of an arginine to tryptophan
in the A2 domain close to a suggested binding site for factor IXa. Since a previous
study of this mutant factor VIII protein suggested that this protein had a reduced
affinity for factor IXa, position 527 in the protein might be involved in the interaction
with factor IXa.
In this study we gathered evidence for our hypothesis that the Arg to Trp mutation
at position 527 is the cause of the reduced activity of factor VIII Leiden. Replacement
of the mutated A2 domain by wild type A2 domain partially corrected the defect.
Factor VIII from normal and factor VIII Leiden plasma was concentrated by cryoprecipitation,
activated with thrombin and incubated with excess wild type A2 domain. Competition
with excess isolated human A2 domain resulted in a partial reconstitution of the factor
VIIIa activity of thrombin treated factor VIII Leiden. This supports the hypothesis
that the mutation in the A2 domain is the cause of the reduced factor VIII activity.