Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

H L Sharp

Publications and source records attributed to H L Sharp.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

Aspartylglucosaminuria: psychomotor retardation masquerading as a mucopolysaccharidosis.

A 5-year-old girl with coarse facies, visceromegaly, and vacuolated lymphocytes is presented as the first case of aspartylglucosaminuria diagnosed in this country. This metabolic defect in glycoprotein catabolism can be clinically confused with other storage diseases such as the mucopolysaccharidoses and mucolipidoses. It is not diagnosed by routine laboratory screening methods. Special studies are required to confirm the diagnosis, but a thin-layer chromatography method for screening urine is presented for use when the diagnosis is suspected. The developmental potential in this inborn error of metabolism is documented.

Amidohydrolases↗

Genetic analysis of patients with chronic active hepatitis.

21 patients with chronic active hapatitis (CAH) and their families were HL-A typed. HL-A8 was significantly increased in frequency. An apparent increased frequency of HL-A1 was shown to be secondary to the increased HL-A8 due to linkage disequilibrium. Genotype analysis revealed a striking increased frequency of homozygosity for HL-A8, 6 of 21 patients (28.5%) vs. 2.8% of controls. Two patients and one normal who were homozygous for both HL-A1 and HL-A8 were found to be homozygous for a mixed lymphocyte culture (MLC) determinant 8a. Homozygous 8a cells were used as test-stimulating cells in one-way MLC reactions to determine the frequency of the expression of the 8a determinant in 17 patients and 49 controls selected for HL-A type. 8a was found to be associated with 50% of HL-A8 haplotypes and was frequent in the patient and control populations of the same HL-A types. These data suggest that susceptibility to CAH is determined by homozygosity for a gene that is in linkage disequilibrium with HL-A8 and more closely associated with the HL-A second locus then with the locus for the major MLC determinant.

Adolescent↗

The metabolism of 3alpha, 7alpha, 12alpha-trihydorxy-5beta-cholestan-26-oic acid in two siblings with cholestasis due to intrahepatic bile duct anomalies. An apparent inborn error of cholic acid synthesis.

Studies were carried out in a family in which two children with cholestasis due to intrahepatic bile duct anomalies were shown to have increased amounts of the cholic acid precursor, 3alpha, 7alpha, 12alpha-trihydorxy-5beta-cholestan-26-oic acid (THCA). The metabolism of THCA was studied in one of these patients after an intravenous injection of (3H)THCA, and the cause of the increased amounts of THCA in this condition was found to be due to a metabolic defect in the conversion of this compound into cholic acid. A small amount of (3H)cholic acid was also identified after (3H)THCA administration, confirming that this metabolic defect was incomplete. Varanic acid (3alpha, 7alpha, 12alpha, 24xi-tetrahydorxy-5beta-cholestan-26-oic acid), a metabolite of THCA, could not be identified in either of these patients. By assuming that this compound would be conjugated and excreted if the metabolic block occurred after the formation of varanic acid, the defect in these patients appears to be due to a deficiency of a 24-hydroxylating enzyme system required to convert THCA into varanic acid. This condition appears to be transmitted in an autosomal recessive fashion, because the two affected patients were of opposite sex, and neither a normal sibling nor the two parents have increased amount of THCA in their bile.

Adult↗