RESUMEN
Platelets play a critical role in atherothrombosis and platelet membrane glycoproteins are essential for the activation processes. A numbers of genetic polymorphisms of platelet membrane glycoproteins have been identified and some of them may predispose to thromboembolic events. Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa (GPIIb/IIIa) is the most abundant platelet receptors consisting of 2 subunits, GPIIb and GPIIIa. The GPIIIa Leu33Pro polymorphism has previously been reported to be associated with coronary artery disease (CAD) in several racial groups but has not been studied in Laos. Since CAD is becoming one of the high priority health problems in Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR), study of the prevalence of the GPIIIa Leu33Pro polymorphism may provide the fundamental information for future evaluation of the association with the risk of CAD in this population. Two hundred unrelated subjects attended to Mahosod hospital, Vientiane, Lao PDR, for health check-up were recruited in this study, and divided into 2 groups composed of 100 individuals in each group with normal and abnormal serum lipids. All subjects had no history and clinical signs of arterial or venous thrombosis as well as a bleeding tendency. The GPIIIa Leu33Pro polymorphism was determined in genomic DNA extracted from leukocytes, using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique. The results demonstrated genotype frequencies of Leu/Leu and Leu/Pro in normolipidemia and dyslipidemia were 96.0 \& 99.0 % and 4.0 \& 1.0 %, respectively, whilst the respective allele frequencies of Leu and Pro were 0.98 \& 0.99 and 0.02 \& 0.01. There were no significant differences of the genotype and allele frequencies between both groups (p \> 0.05). The homozygous Pro/Pro was not found in both groups. This is the first report of the genotype distribution of the GPIIIa Leu33Pro polymorphism in Lao PDR which showed similar prevalence as in Asians but lower than those in Caucasian populations.