Mutational analysis of ectopic factor VIII transcripts from hemophilia A patients: identification of cryptic splice site, exon skipping and novel point mutations

Mutational analysis of the gene for clotting factor VIII is complicated by its large size, the high frequency of de novo mutations and its tissue-specific expression. In order to facilitate the search for mutations, we have used a combination of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of ectopic factor Vm transcripts, PCR of genomic DNA, single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis and direct sequencing. Hen we describe the characterization of seven potentially pathogenic mutations: five of them are novel and the reason for the pathogenicity of the sixth could be determined. Here cDNA analysis revealed the absence of the first 47 bp of exon 16 in approximately 80% of the processed factor VIII mRNA, likely due to activation of a cryptic acceptor splice site within exon 16. The other novel mutations reported here include the skipping of exon 19, which predicts the removal of the corresponding 39 amino acids from the A3 domain, and four missense mutations: W14G, Y620C, W1889L, and Q2087R.