Early diagnosis of Danon disease: Flow cytometric detection of lysosome-associated membrane protein-2-negative leukocytes.

Introduction: Danon disease is an extremely rare X-linked dominant disorder characterized by progressive cardiomyopathy, muscle weakness, and mild mental retardation. Most cases harbor nonsense, frameshift, or splice-site mutations in LAMP2 that result in lysosome-associated membrane protein-2 (LAMP-2) deficiency and lysosomal defects. The identification of LAMP2 mutations makes it possible to detect female carriers with significant cardiomyopathy. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to develop useful carrier detection methods.

Methods: To screen for diminished LAMP-2 expression among female patients with progressive cardiomyopathy, we developed a flow cytometric method to detect LAMP-2-deficient leukocytes.

Results: In healthy controls, all circulating leukocyte populations, including granulocytes, monocytes, and lymphocytes, expressed significant levels of LAMP-2. In contrast, cells from a male patient with Danon disease lacked detectable LAMP-2. His younger twin sisters showed reduced levels of LAMP-2 expression with characteristic bimodal fluorescence intensity patterns. The percentage of LAMP-2-negative cells in the asymptomatic sibling was nearly the same as that in the symptomatic sibling.

Conclusion: We developed a flow cytometric assay for LAMP-2 expression that can serve as a rapid primary screening method to detect carriers of LAMP-2 deficiencies. This assay will narrow the target population before subjecting patients to more laborious and expensive gene mutation analysis.