A novel amino acid substitution of integrin αIIb in Glanzmann thrombasthenia confirms that the N-terminal region of the receptor plays a role in maintaining β-propeller structure.

Mutation screening in Glanzmann thrombasthenia (GT) is now advanced. Despite the large number of genetic defects reported in the ITGA2B gene, few affect the structure of the N-terminal domain of the αIIb subunit. We now report a Catalan family where type I GT is given by compound heterozygosity within ITGA2B with a Gly13Val substitution in αIIb associated with a 13 bp deletion involving the splice site of exon 15. Molecular modelling confirmed that the Gly13Val mutation interfered with the structure of the αIIb β-propeller and confirms that a fold-back of the N-terminus to interact with residues deep within the propeller is necessary for the normal intracellular processing of the maturing αIIbβ3 integrin.

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