Abstract

The Val34Leu polymorphism in the A subunit of blood coagulation factor XIII (FXIII-A) is located in the activation peptide, just three amino acids upstream of the thrombin cleavage site. The Val→Leu replacement accelerates the rate of the proteolytic activation of FXIII and it seems to provide protection against myocardial infarction. Methods available for the assessment of the FXIII-A Val34Leu polymorphism are rather time-consuming, laborious and not easily applicable for large-scale studies. In this study a new method based on real-time PCR with fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) detection and melting curve analysis was developed. The rapid, simple method was adapted to the widely used real-time PCR instrument, LightCycler (Roche Diagnostics). The results showed 100% coincidence with those obtained by the traditional PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) assay and fluorescent DNA sequencing. Using this method, an allele frequency of 24.2% was obtained (n = 113), which well agrees with the allele frequency obtained by PCR-RFLP on a different group of the same ethnic Hungarian population (25.9%).