A new locus for autosomal recessive spastic paraplegia associated with mental retardation and distal motor neuropathy, SPG14, maps to chromosome 3q27-q28.

Hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSPs), a group of neurodegenerative disorders that cause progressive spasticity of the lower limbs, are characterized by clinical and genetic heterogeneity. To date, three loci for autosomal recessive HSP have been mapped on chromosomes 8p, 16q, and 15q. After exclusion of linkage at these loci, we performed a genomewide search in a consanguineous Italian family with autosomal recessive HSP complicated by mild mental retardation and distal motor neuropathy.

Further evidence of a duplication in 17p11.2 in families with recurrence of HMSN Ia (Charcot-Marie-Tooth neuropathy type Ia).

Five Italian families with recurrence of cases of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (type Ia) were analysed using three closely linked DNA probes that detect polymorphisms in the region 17p11.2. The probe pVAW409R3 detected the presence of a duplication in all the affected subjects, but not in the subjects with normal electromyographic (EMG) findings.

Genetic epidemiology of hereditary motor sensory neuropathies (type I).

Patients affected with hereditary motor sensory neuropathy (HMNS) type I were traced through hospital records. Each case was re-examined, a family history was drawn, and EMG examination was performed in those members of the family who could have inherited the trait. In the prevalence year 1987, in a population of 1,067,130 inhabitants of 2 contiguous provinces of northeast Italy, 100 living cases were recorded in 30 families, giving a minimal prevalence rate estimate of 9.

X-linked Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. A linkage study in a large family by using 12 probes of the pericentromeric region.

Linkage analysis was performed on 41 subjects belonging to a large family with a recurrence of X-linked Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMTX), by using 12 restriction fragment length polymorphism markers mapping in p11-q13. The results are in agreement with previous linkage data. Three new markers that are potentially useful for genetic analysis of CMTX families are described.

Serum lipids, lipoprotein analysis and apoprotein A-I, A-II and B levels in Friedreich's ataxia.

Serum lipid, lipoprotein and apoprotein parameters were evaluated in 15 patients (7 males and 8 females) with Friedreich's ataxia. Serum lipid levels in patients showed no significant differences compared to controls. Small reduction in serum phospholipid and in total HDL and HDL3 cholesterol levels were observed, and the female patients presented a slight reduced total cholesterol level; among the serum apoproteins, apo B was reduced only in the males.