A novel PCR-based method for direct Fcγ receptor IIIa (CD16) allotyping

Leukocyte IgG receptors (FcγR) are important immune-response modulating molecules. FcγRIIIa is expressed on macrophages, NK-cells and γδ-T cells and exhibits a genetically determined, functional polymorphism at nucleotide 559. This allelic difference predicts either a phenylalanine (F158) or valine (V158) at amino acid 158 in the membrane-proximal extracellular domain, and has been shown to be associated with autoimmune and infectious diseases. Published methods to determine FcγRIIIa genotypes are cumbersome. Therefore, we developed a novel, rapid and reliable PCR-based method to determine FcγRIIIa genotypes. Comparison of genotyping results with direct FcγRIIIa sequencing of 60 blood donors showed 100% accuracy of this new method. Since genotype frequencies of FcγR polymorphisms depend strongly on race and ethnicity, we compared FcγRIIIa genotype frequencies of 176 Caucasian Dutch and 104 Japanese blood donors. Interestingly, these frequencies were not significantly different (P>0.1), in contrast to the FcγRIIa and FcγRIIIb genotype frequencies (P<0.001).