Significance of Flow Cytometry in Detection of Glanzmann's Thrombasthenia

In order to detect fibrinogen binding to platelet and the platelet membrane glycoproteins (GP) expression in patients with Glanzmann's thrombasthenia (GT) by flow cytometry (FCM), and to ensure its value in GT diagnosis, 12 GT patients, their relatives (father or mother) and 12 normal individuals were involved in the study to analyse the platelet membrane GP Ⅰ b, Ⅱb, Ⅲ a and fibrinogen binding with FCM. The platelet membrane glycoproteins were also measured by SDS-PAGE and Western blot. The results showed that on FCM, the fibrinogen binding to platelet in all patients was lower than that of normal subjects, the GP Ⅱ b and Ⅲ a expression was remarkably decreased in 10 cases and relatively lowered in other 2 cases, while the GP Ⅰ b was normal in all patients. Similar results were seen in detections with PAGE and Western blot. The results suggest that measurement of fibrinogen binding and platelet membrane GP expression by FCM in whole blood can provide a rapid, sensitive and simple method for GT diagnosis.