Exposure of anionic phospholipids upon platelet activation permits binding of beta 2 glycoprotein I and through it that of IgG antiphospholipid antibodies. Studies in platelets from patients with antiphospholipid syndrome and normal subjects.

Patients with antiphospholipid syndrome, whether primary or secondary to systemic lupus erythematosus, may have thrombocytopenia. Their antibodies to anionic phospholipids might bind to phospholipids on the platelet wall but anionic phospholipids are asymmetrically located in the inner leaflet. In addition, antibodies to anionic phospholipids may require beta 2 glycoprotein I (beta 2GPI) as a cofactor in order to bind to phospholipids. In turn, beta 2GPI has high affinity for anionic phospholipids. Loss of this asymmetry occurs upon platelet activation and could thus permit such antibody-beta 2GPI-platelet interaction. We studied this by flow cytometry using purified beta 2GPI-FITC labelled and similarly labelled affinity-purified polyclonal antibodies to cardiolipin or phosphatidylserine (aPL) obtained from sera of patients with primary antiphospholipid syndrome. Five percent of resting platelets were bound by aPL in the presence of beta 2GPI. Such binding increased when we activated platelets with various agonists, reaching 31% with the concurrent use of thrombin and the calcium ionophore A23187. Platelet activation resulted in the expression of GMP140 but this did not correlate with aPL binding. This probably reflects that the expression of GMP140, which depends on their secretion of alpha granules, has different agonist responses and occurs at different times than do microvesicle formation and expression of prothrombinase activity which coincide with the loss of phospholipid asymmetry on the platelet wall. When we studied the binding of purified beta 2GPI we also found that it binds preferentially to activated platelets and that it seems to be a prerequisite for the binding of aPL onto them. Our findings indicate that aPL from patients with antiphospholipid syndrome may bind to activated platelets through beta 2GPI.