A 33-year-old female had suffered from spontaneously recurrent bursitis and tendosynovitis/enthesitis of the patellar and Achilles tendons for about 10 years. The episodes of immobilization increased. Ultrasound imaging of the swollen and painful tendons showed chronic inflammation with neoangiogenesis within the tendons and hypoechoic lesions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWerner syndrome (WS) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by a constellation of adult onset phenotypes consistent with an acceleration of intrinsic biological aging. It is caused by pathogenic variants in the WRN gene, which encodes a multifunctional nuclear protein with exonuclease and helicase activities. WRN protein is thought to be involved in optimization of various aspects of DNA metabolism, including DNA repair, recombination, replication, and transcription.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To identify the cause of a so-far unreported phenotype of infantile-onset multisystem neurologic, endocrine, and pancreatic disease (IMNEPD).
Methods: We characterized a consanguineous family of Yazidian-Turkish descent with IMNEPD. The two affected children suffer from intellectual disability, postnatal microcephaly, growth retardation, progressive ataxia, distal muscle weakness, peripheral demyelinating sensorimotor neuropathy, sensorineural deafness, exocrine pancreas insufficiency, hypothyroidism, and show signs of liver fibrosis.
The autosomal recessive immunodeficiency-centromeric instability-facial anomalies syndrome (ICF) is characterized by immunodeficiency, developmental delay, and facial anomalies. ICF2, caused by biallelic ZBTB24 gene mutations, is acknowledged primarily as an isolated B-cell defect. Here, we extend the phenotype spectrum by describing, in particular, for the first time the development of a combined immune defect throughout the disease course as well as putative autoimmune phenomena such as granulomatous hepatitis and nephritis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRAD51C was defined by Meindl et al. in 2010 as a high-risk gene involved in hereditary breast and ovarian cancers. Although this role seems to be clear, nowadays there is controversy about the indication of including the gene in routine clinical genetic testing, due to the lower prevalence or the absence of mutations found in subsequent studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDNA interstrand crosslink repair requires several classes of proteins, including structure-specific endonucleases and Fanconi anemia proteins. SLX4, which coordinates three separate endonucleases, was recently recognized as an important regulator of DNA repair. Here we report the first human individuals found to have biallelic mutations in SLX4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCase Report: Hepatoblastoma was diagnosed in a 4-year-old girl receiving growth hormone substitution therapy for short stature. Owing to multiple congenital malformations, VACTERL-H (vertebral, anal, cardiac, tracheal, renal and limb anomalies with hydrocephalus) association had been suggested. Elevated chromosomal breakage rates and G2 phase arrest induced by DNA-crosslinking agents in cellular assays confirmed the diagnosis of Fanconi anaemia (FA), a tumour susceptibility syndrome known to be associated with hepatocellular carcinoma following androgen therapy.
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