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Title: Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease: Detection of mutations Thr[sup 181][yields]Pro and Leu[sup 223][yields]Pro in the proteolipid protein gene, and prenatal diagnosis

Journal Article · · American Journal of Human Genetics; (United States)
OSTI ID:5032017
; ; ;  [1];  [2]
  1. Institute of Child Health, London (United Kingdom)
  2. Northwick Park Hospital, Middlesex (United Kingdom)

A family with an apparent history of X-linked Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease presented for genetic counseling, requesting carrier detection and prenatal diagnosis. RFLP analysis using the proteolipid protein (PLP) gene probe was uninformative in this family. A prenatal diagnosis on a chorionic villus sample (CVS) was carried out using single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSC) analysis of a variant in exon 4 of the PLP gene. The fetus was predicted to be unaffected. Sequencing of the exon from the CVS, the predicted-carrier mother, and the obligate-carrier grandmother revealed an A-to-C change at nucleotide 541 in the two women but not in the fetus. As this change results in a Thr-to-Pro change at amino acid 181 in a region of the gene predicted to be part of a transmembrane segment, it was concluded that this was the mutation causing the disease in this family. In addition, in a second family, an exon 5 variant band pattern on SSCP analysis was shown by sequencing to be due to a T-to-C change at nucleotide 668. This results in a Leu-to-Pro change in a carrier mother and in her two affected sons. These results provide further examples of mutations in PLP that cause Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease and illustrate the value of SSCP in genetic analysis. 17 refs., 6 figs., 1 tab.

OSTI ID:
5032017
Journal Information:
American Journal of Human Genetics; (United States), Vol. 51:4; ISSN 0002-9297
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English