Genetic and mechanistic evaluation for the mixed-field agglutination in B3 blood type with IVS3+5G>A ABO gene mutation.

Background: The ABO blood type B(3) is the most common B subtype in the Chinese population with a frequency of 1/900. Although IVS3+5G>A (rs55852701) mutation of B gene has been shown to associate with the development of B(3) blood type, genetic and mechanistic evaluation for the unique mixed-field agglutination phenotype has not yet been completely addressed.
Methodology/principal Findings: In this study, we analyzed 16 cases of confirmed B(3) individuals and found that IVS3+5G>A attributes to all cases of B(3). RT-PCR analyses revealed the presence of at least 7 types of aberrant B(3) splicing transcripts with most of the transcripts causing early termination and producing non-functional protein during translation. The splicing transcript without exon 3 that was predicted to generate functional B(3) glycosyltransferase lacking 19 amino acids at the N-terminal segment constituted only 0.9% of the splicing transcripts. Expression of the B(3) cDNA with exon 3 deletion in the K562 erythroleukemia cells revealed that the B(3) glycosyltransferase had only 40% of B(1) activity in converting H antigen to B antigen. Notably, the typical mixed-field agglutination of B(3)-RBCs can be mimicked by adding anti-B antibody to the K562-B(3) cells.
Conclusions/significance: This study thereby demonstrates that both aberrant splicing of B transcripts and the reduced B(3) glycosyltransferase activity contribute to weak B expression and the mixed-field agglutination of B(3), adding to the complexity for the regulatory mechanisms of ABO gene expression.