Expression profiling of sciatic nerve in a Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1a mouse model.

Expression profiling was performed on sciatic nerve of normal mice and of transgenic mice overexpressing the peripheral myelin protein 22 kDa (PMP22). These mice represent a model for the hereditary peripheral neuropathy Charcot-Marie Tooth type 1A. Comparison of the profiles reveals that the proteasomal degradation pathway and various signaling mechanisms are up-regulated in the diseased nerve.

Molecular heterogeneity of second and fourth components of complement and their genes in systemic sclerosis and association of HLA alleles A1, B8 and DR3 with limited and DR5 with diffuse systemic sclerosis.

Deficiency of the complement component C4 at the functional, protein and gene level and deficiency of complement component C2 at the functional level were investigated and HLA analysis was performed on patients with limited and diffuse systemic sclerosis (SSc). One of the patients with limited SSc (n = 15) had subnormal C4, 1 subnormal C2 and 1 subnormal C4 and C2 activities; the latter patient had HLA alleles A11;B35;Dw1 associated with type II C2 deficiency and therefore most likely had a defect at the C2 locus. One of the patients with diffuse SSC (n = 12) had subnormal C4 and 1 subnormal C4 and C2 activities.

Incomplete functional deficiencies of the fourth (C4) and second (C2) components of complement in a patient with linear frontoparietal scleroderma and his family. Deficiencies determined by a gene not linked to human leukocyte antigen system.

Background: In a previous study, a patient suffering from linear frontoparietal scleroderma and some of his family members were found to have an incomplete functional deficiency of the second component (C2) of complement (C). In this study, the proband and the rest of his family members were investigated for functional deficiencies of C2 and the fourth component of C (C4). A search for null alleles of C2 (C2*Q0) and C4 (C4*Q0) was made to find out whether their occurrence is responsible for incomplete functional deficiencies.