A new intercellular adhesion molecule-1 allele identified in West Africans is prevalent in African-Americans in contrast to other North American racial groups

• Published in: Tissue antigens Vol. 50; no. 6; pp. 654 - 656
• Main Authors: Zimmerman, P. A., Wieseman, M., Spalding, T., Boatin, B.A., Nutman, T.B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.12.1997
• Subjects: Africa, Western; African Continental Ancestry Group - genetics; allele; Alleles; Amino Acid Sequence; Base Sequence; DNA, Complementary; Ethnic Groups; European Continental Ancestry Group - genetics; Hispanic Americans - genetics; Humans; ICAM-1; Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 - genetics; Molecular Sequence Data; West Africa; Africa, Western
• ISSN: 0001-2815; 1399-0039
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1399-0039.1997.tb02926.x

Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1, CD54/chromosome 19p13.3-13.2) interacts with LFA-1 (CD11a/18; alpha L/ beta 2) to mediate cell-to-cell adhesion necessary for leukocyte attachment and migration across endothelial surfaces into sites of inflammation. In vitro mutagenesis studies have mapped amino acids involved in binding LFA-1, rhinovirus and P. falciparum to reside within domain 1 of the functional protein. This report identifies a single point mutation (A to T transversion) and predicts a lysine (K super(+)) to methionine (M) substitution at amino acid 29 ( super(K)29 super(M)) within the membrane distal domain 1 of this important adhesion molecule. Distribution of this variant ICAM-1 allele in four North American racial groups is examined. Human genomic DNA was prepared from whole blood collected from a West African study population (n=156). PCR conditions were identical to those described previously. The upstream (+) strand primer was ICAM-A, 5'-TCTTCTAGGACCTGGC-3' and downstream (-) strand primer was ICAM-B 5'-TTACTCTCAGTACACG-3'. PCR amplification conditions were 94 degree C for 30 s, 48 degree C for 30 s and 72 degree C for 30 s for 40 cycles. Following PCR amplification manual DNA sequence analysis was performed directly on the 280-base-pair (bp) ICAM-1, domain 1 amplicon from 10 study subjects following suppliers recommended protocols (US Biochemicals/Amersham, Cleveland, OH, USA). Within this group 3 individuals were observed with a heterozygous (A/T) DNA sequencing profile at nucleotide 2 of codon 29; one individual was homozygous (T/T). This observation was verified by DNA sequence analysis of multiple individual plasmid-based clones (pCRII; Invitrogen, LaJolla, CA, USA) from 2 of the 3 individuals identified above.