Report Vacuoliting Megalencephalic Leukoencephalopathy With
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Elsevier - Publisher Connector Am. J. Hum. Genet. 66:733–739, 2000 Report Vacuoliting Megalencephalic Leukoencephalopathy with Subcortical Cysts, Mapped to Chromosome 22qtel Meral Topc¸u,1 Corine Gartioux,5 Florence Ribierre,5 Cengiz Yalc¸inkaya,6 Erem Tokus,6 Nese O¨ ztekin,2 Jacques S. Beckmann,5 Meral Ozguc,3,4 and Eric Seboun5, 7 1Department of Pediatric Neurology, Hacettepe University Hospital and Institute of Neurological Sciences, Sihhiye, 2Neurology Department of SSK Hospital, and 3Department of Medical Biology and 4Tubitak DNA/Cell Bank, Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara; 5 Ge´ne´thon, Evry, France; 6Istanbul University Medical Faculty, Department of Child Neurology, Istanbul; and 7Division de Ge´ne´tique et de Microbiologie, Universite´ Pierre & Marie Curie, Paris Summary a new clinical entity called “vacuoliting megalencephalic leukoencephalopathy” (VL) [MIM 604004] recently has The leukodystrophies form a complex group of orphan been recognized. This disorder is distinct from the other genetic disorders that primarily affect myelin, the main leukodystrophies (i.e., Canavan disease [MIM 271900], constituent of the brain white matter. Among the leu- Alexander disease [MIM 203450], and GM1 ganglios- kodystrophies of undetermined etiology, a new clinical idosis [MIM 230500]) that exhibit progressive mega- entity called “vacuoliting megalencephalic leukoence- lencephaly. VL is characterized by a milder clinical phalopathy” (VL) was recently recognized. VL is char- course, which contrasts with severe abnormalities on acterized by diffuse swelling of the white matter, large magnetic-resonance-imaging analysis of the brain. The subcortical cysts, and megalencephaly with infantile on- supratentorial hemispherical white matter appears dif- set. Family studies in several ethnic groups have sug- fusely swelled, with bilateral subcortical cysts of typical gested an autosomal recessive mode of inheritance. We temporal location, whereas the gray-matter structures mapped the VL gene to chromosome 22qtel, within a 3- are preserved (van der Knaap et al. 1995; Goutieres et cM linkage interval between markers D22S1161 and al. 1996; Singhal et al. 1996; Mejaski-Bosnjak et al. n66c4 (maximum LOD score 10.12 at recombination 1997; Topc¸u et al. 1998). Consanguinity between the fraction .0, for marker n66c4; maximum multipoint parents of VL-affected children, which is suggestive of LOD score 17 for this interval) by genome scan of 13 an autosomal recessive mode of inheritance, has been Turkish families. Linkage analysis under the genetic-het- observed in several ethnic groups. We report the local- erogeneity hypothesis showed no genetic heterogeneity. ization of the VL gene to chromosome 22qtel, by genome No abnormalities were found in three tested candidate scan of 10 consanguineous families and 3 families with genes (fibulin-1 and glutathione S-transferases 1 and 2). no known relationship that originated from rural areas of central and southeastern Anatolia, in Turkey. The study was approved by the review board of Hac- ettepe University, Faculty of Medicine (Ankara). In- The leukodystrophies are a heterogeneous group of or- formed consent was obtained from family members. phan genetic disorders that primarily affect the white Twenty-one patients (9 boys and 12 girls) from 13 matter of the brain and its main constituent, myelin. different families were analyzed. Consanguinity was Among the leukodystrophies of undetermined etiology, known to have occurred in 10 families. Clinical and neurobiological features of 12 patients (from families Received July 26, 1999; accepted for publication November 29, MEG1, MEG3, MEG 4, MEG 6, MEG8, and MEG10) 1999; electronically published February 1, 2000. have been reported elsewhere (Topc¸u et al. 1998). The Address for correspondence and reprints: Dr. Eric Seboun, Centre diagnostic criteria for selection of the other families were National de Ge´notypage, 2 rue Gaston Cre´mieux, CP 5721-91057 identical. All other causes of leukodystrophies have been Evry Cedex, France. E-mail: [email protected] ᭧ 2000 by The American Society of Human Genetics. All rights reserved. ruled out by an extensive biochemical analysis, including 0002-9297/2000/6602-0043$02.00 quantitation of lysosomal activities (of b-hexosamini- 733 734 Am. J. Hum. Genet. 66:733–739, 2000 dase, arylsulfatase A, b-galactosidase, and galactocere- CCGGCCAAAAATGACTTTTA and CTGGAAAGAG- brosidase b-galactoside). CAAGACCCTG, size 200–204 bp]), and n66c4 clone Because biochemical and enzymatic studies revealed [Genbank accession number AC000050] [motif: CA re- no known abnormalities, and because the high degree peat, primer set ACTCATCGCATACACTGTGTCC and of consanguinity between the parents of affected chil- CAGGGTGGATCACCAAGC, size: 266–274 bp]). The dren suggested an autosomal recessive mode of inheri- allele size was estimated by use of individual 134702 tance, we undertook a genome scan to map the VL gene. from the CEPH reference family. Two-point linkage DNA was isolated and purified from peripheral blood, analysis yielded a maximum LOD score (Zmax) of 10.12 by use of standard protocols. Genotyping was performed at a recombination fraction (v) of 0, for marker n66c4 with fluorescent end-labeled microsatellite markers from (table 1). This result is in agreement with the results of the Ge´ne´thon map (Vignal et al. 1993). Alleles were two-point linkage simulation (autosomal recessive mode separated by electrophoresis performed with ABI 373 of inheritance, full penetrance, five isofrequent marker sequencers. Genotyping data were processed with GEN- alleles, and disease-allele frequency .0001), performed OTYPER (ABI), GENSCAN (ABI), and MARKSYN with SLINK (Weeks et al. 1990), which yielded an av- (Ge´ne´thon) software. Two-point LOD-score analysis erage LOD score of 10 atv =.0 for this family set. was conducted with the FASTLINK program (Schaffer Multipoint linkage analysis performed with GENE- 1996), and multipoint LOD-score analysis was con- HUNTER (Kruglyak et al. 1996) yielded a Zmax of 17 ducted with the GENEHUNTER program (Kruglyak et (fig. 1). This result was confirmed by haplotype con- al. 1996); and an autosomal recessive mode of inheri- struction with D22S294, D22S1170, D22S1161, tance with full penetrance and true marker-allele fre- D22S922, D22S1169, ARSA/(CT)n, and n66c4/(CA)n, quencies was assumed. The disease-allele frequency was which places the VL gene within a 3-cM linkage interval set to .0001. This initial genome screening with the nine defined by D22S1161 (proximal) and n66c4 (distal) (fig. initially collected families (Topc¸u et al. 1998) genotyped 2). The map is based on the recently published sequence with 257 fluorescent end-labeled microsatellite Ge´ne´- of chromosome 22 (Dunham et al. 1999). Multipoint thon markers spaced at an average distance of 14 cM linkage analysis performed under the heterogeneity hy- (Weissenbach et al. 1992; Dib et al. 1996) failed to reveal pothesis revealed no genetic heterogeneity (data not linkage. A second genome search, with 300 additional shown). microsatellite markers (average spacing for the com- Three affected children were born from three mar- bined set of markers was 6.5 cM), was therefore per- riages that had no known consanguinity (i.e., families formed. Linkage analysis of D22S1160 and D22S1169, MEG6, MEG11, and MEG16). Haplotype analysis of two markers separated by 11 cM, yielded a multipoint family MEG11 showed an 11-cM homozygosity region, LOD score of 4. Four additional Turkish families suggesting that the parents were likely to be related. (MEG13, MEG14, MEG15, and MEG16) were col- Results showed no homozygosity for the affected child lected, and the complete set of families was genotyped in each of families MEG6 and MEG16. However, anal- with four new Ge´ne´thon markers. Multipoint linkage ysis of the extended haplotypes showed that the unaf- analysis yielded a Zmax of 15. However, although mark- fected siblings had inherited different combinations of ers showed homozygosity (Lander and Botstein 1987) recombinant haplotypes (fig. 2). Taken together, these with fully informative families, several families remained results show that VL is linked to a single locus that spans partially or totally uninformative, raising the possibility a 3-cM region located on chromosome 22qtel. Whereas of genetic heterogeneity. this rare disorder was mapped in a set of Turkish families To increase informativity of these families, new mi- originating from small villages in a rural area, a founder crosatellite markers were developed. Sequences of ge- nomic clones spanning the telomeric region that were downloaded from The Sanger Center were computer Table 1 scanned for short tandem repeats. Three microsatellite Two-Point Linkage-Analysis Data, from an Autosomal Recessive sequences were identified, two in the vicinity of the genes Model with Full Penetrance encoding fibulin (FBLN-1) and arylsulfatase A (ARSA) LOD SCORE AT v = and one in the genomic clone n66c4. New markers were MARKER .00 .1 .2 .3 .4 Z v developed, and the 13 families were genotyped. Primer max max Ϫϱ sets flanking the microsatellite motifs were developed for D22S294 1.50 1.41 .93 .41 1.55 .132 D22S1170 Ϫϱ 2.99 2.00 1.00 .32 3.10 .069 FBLN1D/(CA)n (FBLN-1 [GenBank accession number D22S1161 Ϫϱ 6.01 4.05 2.30 .92 7.04 .026 Z95331] [motif: CA repeat, primer set GACCTACTA- D22S922 5.17 4.54 3.12 1.83 .76 5.47 .017 TGTGCCAGGAAGG and GGCTGAGGCACAAGAG- D22S1169 8.57 7.03 4.67 2.61 1.04 8.76 .010 ARSA 6.34 4.48 2.83 1.52 .58 6.34 .000 TTTC, size 300–300 bp]), ARSA(CT)n (ARSA [Genbank accession number U62317] [motif: CT repeat, primer set n66c4 10.12 7.41 4.84 2.64 .97 10.12 .000 Reports 735 Figure 1 Graphic representation of multipoint LOD-score analysis of the 22qtel chromosomal region linked to the VL gene. The multipoint LOD score was computed with GENEHUNTER (Kruglyak et al. 1996) by use of a recessive mode of inheritance, complete penetrance, and true marker-allele frequencies.