Marica Pavkovic¹, Aleksandar Petlichkovski², Aleksandar Stojanovic¹, Dejan Trajkov², Mirko Spiroski²

Background. Glycoprotein (GP) Ia/IIa or a2b1 integrin is a platelet receptor for collagen and it mediates platelet adhesion to vascular subendothelium and is involved in thromb formation. Genetic polymorphism of a2b1 known as Bgl II affects the density of platelet GP Ia/IIa receptor on the platelet surface. Recent studies had shown relationship between this polymorphism and the risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, as well as diabetic retinopathy.

Aim. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of this polymorphism in Macedonian healthy population.

Materials and Methods. We genotyped 217 healthy Macedonian individuals using the PCR and RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphism) method.

Results. The allele frequencies in this study were 0.32 for Bgl II (+) allele and 0.67 for Bgl II (-). Distribution of Bgl II genotypes in Macedonian population was Bgl II (+/+) = 16/217 (7.3%), Bgl II (+/-) =107/217 (49.3%) and Bgl II (-/-) = 94/217 (43.3%).

Conclusion. Our results showed a slightly lower proportion of the Bgl II (+) allele (0.32) in Macedonian population, but not significantly different from other Caucasian population.