: Dominant mutations in are known to cause vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (vEDS) by impairing extracellular matrix (ECM) homeostasis. This disruption leads to the fragility of soft connective tissues and a significantly increased risk of life-threatening arterial and organ ruptures. Currently, treatments for vEDS are primarily symptomatic, largely due to a limited understanding of its underlying pathobiology and molecular mechanisms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiagnosing hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) and hypermobility spectrum disorders (HSD), common overlapping multisystemic conditions featuring symptomatic joint hypermobility, is challenging due to lack of established causes and diagnostic tools. Currently, the 2017 diagnostic criteria for hEDS are used, with non-qualifying cases classified as HSD, although the distinction remains debated. We previously showed extracellular matrix (ECM) disorganization in both hEDS and HSD dermal fibroblasts involving fibronectin (FN), type I collagen (COLLI), and tenascin (TN), with matrix metalloproteinase-generated fragments in conditioned media.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (vEDS) is a severe connective tissue disorder caused by dominant mutations in the COL3A1 gene encoding type III collagen (COLLIII). COLLIII is primarily found in blood vessels and hollow organs, and its deficiency leads to soft connective tissues fragility, resulting in life-threatening arterial and organ ruptures. There are no current targeted therapies available.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe most common conditions with symptomatic joint hypermobility are hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) and hypermobility spectrum disorders (HSD). Diagnosing these overlapping connective tissue disorders remains challenging due to the lack of established causes and reliable diagnostic tests. hEDS is diagnosed applying the 2017 diagnostic criteria, and patients with symptomatic joint hypermobility but not fulfilling these criteria are labeled as HSD, which is not officially recognized by all healthcare systems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) is the most frequent type of EDS and is characterized by generalized joint hypermobility and musculoskeletal manifestations which are associated with chronic pain, and mild skin involvement along with the presence of more than a few comorbid conditions. Despite numerous research efforts, no causative gene(s) or validated biomarkers have been identified and insights into the disease-causing mechanisms remain scarce. Variability in the spectrum and severity of symptoms and progression of hEDS patients' phenotype likely depend on a combination of age, gender, lifestyle, and the probable multitude of genes involved in hEDS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS), mainly characterized by generalized joint hypermobility and its complications, minor skin changes, and apparently segregating with an autosomal dominant pattern, is still without a known molecular basis. Hence, its diagnosis is only clinical based on a strict set of criteria defined in the revised EDS nosology. Moreover, the hEDS phenotypic spectrum is wide-ranging and comprises multiple associated signs and symptoms shared with other heritable or acquired connective tissue disorders and chronic inflammatory diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiallelic variants in neuroblastoma-amplified sequence (NBAS) cause an extremely broad spectrum of phenotypes. Clinical features range from isolated recurrent episodes of liver failure to multisystemic syndrome including short stature, skeletal osteopenia and dysplasia, optic atrophy, and a variable immunological, cutaneous, muscular, and neurological abnormalities. Hemizygous variants in CUL4B cause syndromic X-linked intellectual disability characterized by limitations in intellectual functions, developmental delays in gait, cognitive, and speech functioning, and other features including short stature, dysmorphism, and cerebral malformations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS) are rare connective tissue disorders consisting of 13 subtypes with overlapping features including joint hypermobility, skin and generalized connective tissue fragility. Classical EDS (cEDS) is principally caused by heterozygous COL5A1 or COL5A2 variants and rarely by the COL1A1 p.(Arg312Cys) substitution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (vEDS) is a rare inherited connective tissue disorder due to heterozygous pathogenic COL3A1 variants. Arterial, intestinal, and/or uterine fragility is the disease hallmark and results in reduced life expectancy. The clinical diagnosis is not always straightforward and patients' selection for molecular confirmation depends on the characteristics of applied criteria, that is, the Villefranche criteria (in use until 2017) and their revision according to the new EDS nosology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe term linkeropathies (LKs) refers to a group of rare heritable connective tissue disorders, characterized by a variable degree of short stature, skeletal dysplasia, joint laxity, cutaneous anomalies, dysmorphism, heart malformation, and developmental delay. The LK genes encode for enzymes that add glycosaminoglycan chains onto proteoglycans via a common tetrasaccharide linker region. Biallelic variants in XYLT1 and XYLT2, encoding xylosyltransferases, are associated with Desbuquois dysplasia type 2 and spondylo-ocular syndrome, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Ehlers‒Danlos syndromes (EDS) constitute a heterogenous group of connective tissue disorders characterized by joint hypermobility, skin abnormalities, and vascular fragility. The latest nosology recognizes 13 types caused by pathogenic variants in genes encoding collagens and other molecules involved in collagen processing and extracellular matrix (ECM) biology. Classical (cEDS), vascular (vEDS), and hypermobile (hEDS) EDS are the most frequent types.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEhlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) comprises clinically heterogeneous connective tissue disorders with diverse molecular etiologies. The 2017 International Classification for EDS recognized 13 distinct subtypes caused by pathogenic variants in 19 genes mainly encoding fibrillar collagens and collagen-modifying or processing proteins. Recently, a new EDS subtype, i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClassical Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (cEDS) is a dominant inherited connective tissue disorder mainly caused by mutations in the COL5A1 and COL5A2 genes encoding type V collagen (COLLV), which is a fibrillar COLL widely distributed in a variety of connective tissues. cEDS patients suffer from skin hyperextensibility, abnormal wound healing/atrophic scars, and joint hypermobility. Most of the causative variants result in a non-functional COL5A1 allele and COLLV haploinsufficiency, whilst COL5A2 mutations affect its structural integrity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe αvβ3 integrin, an endothelial cells' receptor-binding fibronectin (FN) in the extracellular matrix (ECM) of blood vessels, regulates ECM remodeling during migration, invasion, angiogenesis, wound healing and inflammation, and is also involved in the epithelial mesenchymal transition. In vitro-grown human control fibroblasts organize a fibrillar network of FN, which is preferentially bound on the entire cell surface to its canonical α5β1 integrin receptor, whereas the αvβ3 integrin is present only in rare patches in focal contacts. We report on the preferential recruitment of the αvβ3 integrin, due to the lack of FN-ECM and its canonical integrin receptor, in dermal fibroblasts from Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS) and arterial tortuosity syndrome (ATS), which are rare multisystem connective tissue disorders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (vEDS) is a dominantly inherited connective tissue disorder caused by mutations in the COL3A1 gene that encodes type III collagen (COLLIII), which is the major expressed collagen in blood vessels and hollow organs. The majority of disease-causing variants in COL3A1 are glycine substitutions and in-frame splice mutations in the triple helix domain that through a dominant negative effect are associated with the severe clinical spectrum potentially lethal of vEDS, characterized by fragility of soft connective tissues with arterial and organ ruptures. To shed lights into molecular mechanisms underlying vEDS, we performed gene expression profiling in cultured skin fibroblasts from three patients with different structural COL3A1 mutations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) is a heritable connective tissue disorder with unknown molecular basis mainly characterized by generalized joint hypermobility, joint instability complications, and minor skin changes. The phenotypic spectrum is broad and includes multiple associated symptoms shared with chronic inflammatory systemic diseases. The stricter criteria defined in the 2017 EDS nosology leave without an identity many individuals with symptomatic joint hypermobility and/or features of hEDS; for these patients, the term Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders (HSD) was introduced.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGLUT10 belongs to a family of transporters that catalyze the uptake of sugars/polyols by facilitated diffusion. Loss-of-function mutations in the gene encoding GLUT10 are responsible for arterial tortuosity syndrome (ATS). Since subcellular distribution of the transporter is dubious, we aimed to clarify the localization of GLUT10.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClassical Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (cEDS) is characterized by marked cutaneous involvement, according to the Villefranche nosology and its 2017 revision. However, the diagnostic flow-chart that prompts molecular testing is still based on experts' opinion rather than systematic published data. Here we report on 62 molecularly characterized cEDS patients with focus on skin, mucosal, facial, and articular manifestations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDeletions encompassing TAK1-binding protein 2 (TAB2) associated with isolated and syndromic congenital heart defects. Rare missense variants are found in patients with a similar phenotype as well as in a single individual with frontometaphyseal dysplasia. We describe a family and an additional sporadic patient with polyvalvular heart disease, generalized joint hypermobility and related musculoskeletal complications, soft, velvety and hyperextensible skin, short limbs, hearing impairment, and facial dysmorphism.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFilamin A is an X-linked, ubiquitous actin-binding protein whose mutations are associated to multiple disorders with limited genotype-phenotype correlations. While gain-of-function mutations cause various bone dysplasias, loss-of-function variants are the most common cause of periventricular nodular heterotopias with variable soft connective tissue involvement, as well as X-linked cardiac valvular dystrophy (XCVD). The term "Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) with periventricular heterotopias" has been used in females with neurological, cardiovascular, integument and joint manifestations, but this nosology is still a matter of debate.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJoint hypermobility syndrome/Ehlers-Danlos syndrome hypermobility type (JHS/EDS-HT), is likely the most common systemic heritable connective tissue disorder, and is mostly recognized by generalized joint hypermobility, joint instability complications, minor skin changes and a wide range of satellite features. JHS/EDS-HT is considered an autosomal dominant trait but is still without a defined molecular basis. The absence of (a) causative gene(s) for JHS/EDS-HT is likely attributable to marked genetic heterogeneity and/or interaction of multiple loci.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCaveolins (Cav-1, -2 and -3) and Cavins (Cavin-1, -2, -3 and -4) are two protein families controlling the biogenesis and function of caveolae, plasma membrane omega-like invaginations representing the primary site of important cellular processes like endocytosis, cholesterol homeostasis and signal transduction. Caveolae are especially abundant in fat tissue, playing a consistent role in a number of processes, such as the insulin-dependent glucose uptake and transmembrane transport of lipids underlying differentiation, maintenance and adaptive hypertrophy of adipocytes. Based on this premise, in this work we have investigated the expression of caveolar protein components in liposarcoma (LPS), an adipocytic soft tissue sarcoma affecting adults categorized in well-differentiated, dedifferentiated, myxoid and pleomorphic histotypes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLoss-of-function mutations in the gene encoding GLUT10 are responsible for arterial tortuosity syndrome (ATS), a rare connective tissue disorder. In this study GLUT10-mediated dehydroascorbic acid (DAA) transport was investigated, supposing its involvement in the pathomechanism. GLUT10 protein produced by in vitro translation and incorporated into liposomes efficiently transported DAA.
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