A quantitative protein S deficiency associated with a novel nonsense mutation and markedly reduced levels of mutated mRNA.

A 50-year-old Japanese man who had experienced recurrent episodes of venous thrombosis was found to have a hereditary protein S deficiency. The amount of total protein S antigen in plasma was reduced by approximately 50% in the patient and his two sons. DNA sequence analysis revealed a novel nonsense mutation, TAG for Gln 522 (CAG), in exon 14 of the protein S gene. Family studies performed by mutagenic PCR followed by restriction enzyme digestion showed that the proband and his two sons were heterozygous for this mutation. An mRNA-based analysis indicated that transcripts of the mutated allele were markedly reduced in the platelets of the affected individuals. Immunoblot analysis failed to detect the truncated mutant of protein S in the plasma or platelets of affected members. Our results demonstrated that this novel nonsense mutation was responsible for the quantitative deficiency of protein S.