Quantification of thrombin activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor (TAR) gene polymorphism effects on plasma levels of TAR measured with assays insensitive to isoform-dependent artefact

Reports have reappraised the genotype-dependent variation of Thrombin Activatable Fibrinolysis Inhibitor (TAFI), demonstrating that, in some enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), decreased antibody reactivity towards the TAR 325 IIe isoform led to erroneous TAR levels. Assays free of this artefact are required to evaluate the contribution of the TAFI gene polymorphisms to TAFI level variability. TAFI levels were measured in 209 individuals with both immunological and functional assays. Each assay was characterized, in particular for its reactivity towards the 325 Thr and IIe isoforms. Two ELISAs were found to have a lower reactivity towards the IIe isoform, leading to an overestimate of the magnitude of variation between two different genotypes. In contrast, one ELISA, as well as functional assays, was found to be free of genotype-dependent artefact constituting a reliable method to detect true quantitative variations of TAR levels. Using these reliable methods, univariate and haplotype analyses revealed that TAFI gene polymorphisms explain 25% of TAR level variability. This effect seems to be the consequence of the joint independent action of two polymorphisms, one in the 5' (G-1102T) and the other in the 3' region (T+1583A) of the TAR gene.