Monday, April 15, 2013

CD23 and Platelets

CD (Fc Epsilon Receptor II), has been shown to be present in platelets and may play a role in platelet aggregation. However, none of the publically available platelet proteome databases (Martens et al. Proteomics 2006; Burkhart et al, Blood 2012; Vaudel et al, Journal of Proteome Research 2012) have found this specific protein in platelets. When looking at transcriptome, CD23 RNA doesn’t appear to be present in megakaryocyte (using microarray). However, platelet RNA-seq analysis have found low levels of transcript in platelets (RPKM = 0.37).

While it is easy to speculate why there is such a discrepancy, it is possible that CD23 is induced in people with some allergy exposure and in individuals who are otherwise healthy (as were people in the studies that failed to find CD23), this transcript and its product may not be detectable.

It will be worthwhile to look at individuals with allergic responses (or parasitic infections) and examine whether they have higher expression of CD23 gene and protein. Comparing platelet aggregation in individuals with allergies and those without may also be illuminating.

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