Author/Editor		Kristan, Aleša; Debeljak, Nataša; Kunej, Tanja
Title		Genetic variability of hypoxia-inducible factor alpha (HIFA) genes in familial erythrocytosis
Type		članek
Publication year		2019
Volume		str. str.
ISSN		0902-4441 - European journal of haematology
Language		eng
Abstract		Familial erythrocytosis (FE) is a congenital disorder, defined by elevated red blood cell number, hemoglobin and hematocrit. Among eight types of FE, type 4 is caused by variants in the EPAS1 gene. Two other hypoxia-inducible factor alpha (HIFA) subunits, HIF1A and HIF3A have not yet been associated with medical history of FE, but have potential role in development of erythrocytosis. To improve diagnosis it is crucial to identify new variants in genes involved in erythrocyte production. Published literature and data from genome browsers were used to obtain HIFA sequence variants associated with erythrocytosis and to locate them on protein sequence and regulatory sites. We retrieved 24 variants from the literature: 2 in HIF1A, 20 in EPAS1 and 2 variants in HIF3A gene. Sixteen out of 20 variants in the EPAS1 gene are positioned in a conserved region of 13 amino acids within exon 12, next to regulatory post-translational modification and binding sites. The most important variants for development of erythrocytosis are present in a region of 13 amino acids in exon 12 of the EPAS1 gene, suggesting that EPAS1 has an important role in erythropoiesis. The role of HIF1A and HIF3A in the development of erythrocytosis should be further investigated.
Keywords		HIFA familial erythrocytosis genetic variability HIFA družinska eritrocitoza genska spremenljivost