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Studies on the Secretion of Blood Group Substances
Author(s) -
Sturgeon Ph.,
Arcilla M. B.
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
vox sanguinis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.68
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1423-0410
pISSN - 0042-9007
DOI - 10.1111/j.1423-0410.1970.tb01466.x
Subject(s) - saliva , gene , secretion , chemistry , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , biochemistry
. Semiquantitative serological studies are reported on the red cells and saliva of eight Le(a + b+x +) individuals from two families of Japanese and one of northern European ancestry and on one infant followed serially from birth through nine months of age. In the case of the infant, the data suggest that the Le gene has two determinants (cistrons) for which one product is Le a and the other Le x . Under the influence of the Se‐H genes, Le a substance is converted to Le b substance but Le x remains unchanged. Both Le a and Le x are active antenatally in the salivary tissues but only Le x is active in the production of erythrocyte Lewis substance. Production of erythrocyte Le a substance activates perinatally and becomes fully active soon after birth (by four months in our case). The Se‐H gene system also is active at birth in the salivary gland but compared with the rate of activation of the Lewis gene, its maturation to full production of erythrocyte Le b substance is at a slower rate. This takes place over a period of months during which time the Lewis positive, ABH secretor infant's erythrocytes are Le(a + b + x +) pending their becoming Le(a‐b + x +). Adults who are red cell type Le(a + b + x +) are postulated to have quantitative Se gene variants which, although fully activated, are capable of inducing only partial conversion of Le a to Le b substance. Among our two Oriental families the erythrocytes are strongly Le a but weakly Le b positive and, correspondingly in their salivas, Le a generally predominates over Le b substance and the content of ABH substance is minimal. A weak secretor variant (Se w ) is postulated to be responsible for the phenotype which is manifest in blood types A, O and B subjects. In the Caucasian family the quantitative relationships, both on the red cells and in the saliva, of Le a to Le b is the converse but the ABH content is low; an intermediate variant (Se 1 ) is postulated. It is anticipated that further studies as these could disclose a more or less continuous gradation of Se variants rather than the two suggested here.