A Family Demonstrating Inheritance of the Leach Phenotype: a Gerbich‐Negative Phenotype Associated with Elliptocytosis

Abstract

The proposita of a Canadian family and 2 of her sibs have the rare Leach phenotype and provide the first evidence that the Leach phenotype is an inherited condition. Their red cells are Ge: ‐2, ‐3 and fail to react, by the antiglobulin test, with the monoclonal antibodies GERO, BRIC 4 and BRIC 10. The minor sialoglycoproteins β, β₁ and γ are apparently absent from their red cell membranes. A proportion of their red cells are elliptocytes indicating that β and/or β₁ and/or γ have a function in maintaining normal red cell shape.