Primary hyperoxaluria (PH) is an autosomal-recessive disorder of endogenous oxalate synthesis characterized by accumulation of calcium oxalate primarily in the kidney. Deficiencies of alanine-glyoxylate aminotransferase (AGT) or glyoxylate reductase (GRHPR) are the two known causes of the disease (PH I and II, respectively). To determine the etiology of an as yet uncharacterized type of PH, we selected a cohort of 15 non-PH I/PH II patients from eight unrelated families with calcium oxalate nephrolithiasis for high-density SNP microarray analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDistal myopathies represent a heterogeneous group of inherited skeletal muscle disorders. One type of adult-onset, progressive autosomal-dominant distal myopathy, frequently associated with dysphagia and dysphonia (vocal cord and pharyngeal weakness with distal myopathy [VCPDM]), has been mapped to chromosome 5q31 in a North American pedigree. Here, we report the identification of a second large VCPDM family of Bulgarian descent and fine mapping of the critical interval.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMyotilin (MYOT) is a promising candidate gene for Vocal Cord and Pharyngeal Weakness with Distal Myopathy (VCPDM, also known as MPD2). Located within the minimum VCPDM candidate interval, myotilin mutations also cause a similarly progressive and adult-onset muscle disease. We examined myotilin in VCPDM patients by sequence analysis, RT-PCR, Southern blotting, and western blotting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe brittle hair syndrome (BHS) is characterized by short stature, intellectual impairment, brittle hair, and decreased fertility in 20 members from a large Amish consanguineous kindred previously reported affected with this syndrome. We mapped the BHS gene by genome scan to chromosome 7p14.1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe have identified C7orf11, which localizes to the nucleus and is expressed in fetal hair follicles, as the first disease gene for nonphotosensitive trichothiodystrophy (TTD). C7orf11 maps to chromosome 7p14, and the disease locus has been designated "TTDN1" (TTD nonphotosensitive 1). Mutations were found in patients with Amish brittle-hair syndrome and in other nonphotosensititive TTD cases with mental retardation and decreased fertility but not in patients with Sabinas syndrome or Pollitt syndrome.
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