No association between dysplasminogenemia with p.Ala620Thr mutation and atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome

Atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS), a form of thrombotic microangiopathy, is caused by the uncontrolled activation of the alternative pathway of complement on the cell surface that leads to microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, and renal failure. A recent genetic analysis of aHUS patients identified deleterious mutations not only in complement or complement regulatory genes but also in the plasminogen gene, suggesting that subnormal plasminogen activity may be related to the degradation of thrombi in aHUS. Dysplasminogenemia, which is caused by a genetic variant in the plasminogen gene, PLG:p.Ala620Thr, is commonly observed in the northeast Asian populations, including Japanese. To examine the association between dysplasminogenemia and aHUS, we genotyped PLG:p.Ala620Thr in 103 Japanese patients with aHUS. We identified five aHUS patients with PLG:p.Ala620Thr; the minor allele frequency (MAF) was thus 0.024. The MAF in the patient group was not significantly different from those obtained from a general Japanese population (MAF = 0.020) and the Japanese genetic variation HGDV database (MAF = 0.021) (P = 0.62 and 0.61, respectively). We concluded that, although carriers with PLG:p.Ala620Thr show low plasminogen activity, this is not a predisposing variant for aHUS and that individuals of dysplasminogenemia are not at significantly increased risk of aHUS.