SEARCH · Search PubMed
Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
A five year old boy is reported with hypoplastic, bowed tibiae and postaxial polysyndactyly. Sixteen relatives of both sexes in four generations either have bilateral syndactyly or postaxial polydactyly or both. The nature of the condition and the possible mode of inheritance are discussed.
We report eight cases of a lethal association of failure to thrive, facial dysmorphism, ambiguous genitalia, syndactyly, postaxial polydactyly, and internal developmental anomalies (Hirschsprung's disease, cardiac and renal malformation). This syndrome is likely to be autosomal recessive and resembles Smith-Lemli-Opitz (SLO) syndrome. However, the lethality, the common occurrence of polydactyly, and the sexual ambiguity distinguishes this condition from SLO syndrome. A review of published reports supports the separate classification of this syndrome for which we propose the name lethal acrodysgenital dwarfism.
A family is described in which craniosynostosis is associated with characteristic pinnae, a short columella, and symmetrical syndactyly of the fourth and fifth toes, inherited as an autosomal dominant condition. Various dominantly inherited syndromes involving craniosynostosis have been identified, but the constellation of findings in this family suggests a new syndrome different from those previously described.
We report a male infant with iris coloboma, choanal atresia, postnatal retardation of growth and psychomotor development, genital anomaly, ear anomaly, and anal atresia. In addition, there was cutaneous syndactyly and nail hypoplasia of the second and third fingers on the right and hypoplasia of the left second finger nail. Comparable observations have rarely been reported and possibly represent genetic heterogeneity.
A child with complete syndactyly of cup shaped hands and mirror polysyndactyly of the feet, together with a nasal defect, was identified out of a total of 1,031,439 livebirths. She had a pattern of multiple congenital anomalies which was similar to that first described by Laurin et al in 1964 and by Sandrow et al in 1970. Two more cases with a similar pattern of congenital anomalies have recently been published so this is the fifth reported case with this constellation.
We report on a 9 year old girl, born to consanguineous parents, with major microcephaly, cutaneous syndactyly of the toes, and moderate mental retardation with marked speech involvement. In addition, moderate dysmorphic features and skeletal abnormalities were noted. This multiple congenital anomalies/mental retardation pattern very much resembles that described by Filippi. This observation confirms that this syndrome is a distinct, probably autosomal recessive entity.
Aplasia cutis congenita is a heterogeneous group of conditions usually involving the scalp as well as any other part of the body and is associated with a number of other congenital anomalies. We report on a newborn male with almost complete absence of skin and subcutaneous tissue in association with choanal atresia, syndactyly, imperforate anus, pulmonary hypoplasia, and other anomalies. To our knowledge, this condition, not only in the extent of the lesion but the associated anomalies, has not been reported previously.
Constitutional mosaic trisomy 8 has been associated with syndromic dysmorphology, corneal opacities, leukemias, and trophoblastic disease. However, abnormal maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (MSAFP) has not been reported in association with mosaic trisomy 8. Our case first presented for evaluation of an extremely elevated MSAFP with mild elevation of MShCG in an otherwise normal pregnancy: MSAFP 13.89 MoM, MShCG 3.57 MoM, and MSuE3 1.04 MoM. Fetal dysmorphism was limited to bilateral pyelectasis and a prominent third ventricle. Spontaneous labor at 38 weeks resulted in the birth of a 3,570-gram AGA male with APGARs 7(1)/8(5). The neonate had facial asymmetry, 5th finger clinodactyly, 2-3 toe syndactyly, undescended testicle, abnormal prepuce, and mild pyelectasis. CT scan revealed hypoplasia of the corpus callosum, while echocardiography demonstrated bicuspid aortic valve, and the neonatal karyotype (blood) returned 46,XY/47,XY+8. Evaluation at 3 months revealed more prominent facial asymmetry, plagiocephaly, plantar creases, descent of the testis, and mild developmental delay. Review of the literature does not include any previously reported maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein aberrations in mosaic trisomy 8.
We report a newborn with some manifestations of chondrodysplasia punctata. Additional abnormalities were hydrocephalus, bilateral syndactyly of the fourth and fifth fingers and toes, absence of the middle phalanx of all toes, hypoplasia of the second and third phalanges of all fingers and cryptorchidism. This observation suggests that we are possibly dealing with a rare male case of X-linked dominant chondrodysplasia punctata.
A 4 1/2-year-old girl presenting characteristics of Waardenburg's syndrome with associated multiple defects is described. The patient presents all the obvious signs of the syndrome with the exception of the white forelock (poliosis), but with additional anomalies like: syndactyly, absence of the fourth left toe, bilateral preauricular sinus and dacrocystitis. It is the second case of Waardenburg's syndrome reported by us during the last 20 years.
A case of the cryptophthalmos syndrome is presented, showing bilateral absence of separate eyelids and of the palpebral fissure, the facial skin being continuous over both eyes. Low set ears, marked syndactylies, absence of the urinary tract and external genital hypertrophy were noted, while laryngeal atresia allowed a survival of 5 min only at birth. Histopathological study showed the absence of the conjunctiva, and the ectopic lens surrounded by coarse connective tissue in both eyes. The eyes showed a single chamber: no normal corneal elements, iris or anterior chamber were identifiable and the ciliary body was abnormal. An excessive vascularisation of the peripheral retina and a subretinal deposit of lenticular bladder cells were additional features. The karyotype was that of a normal female.
We report the case of a child with Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome. The pregnancy was complicated by prenatal growth retardation. The baby was admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Chieti when she was five months old. She showed postnatal growth retardation, trouble sucking and swallowing, microcephaly and multiple major and minor malformations, including characteristic facial features and 2-3 syndactyly of the toes. We found correlations between multiple congenital malformations, failure to thrive and low plasmatic cholesterol measurement.
BACKGROUND: FU is the human homologue of the Drosophila gene fused whose product fused is a positive regulator of the transcription factor Cubitus interruptus (Ci). Thus, FU may act as a regulator of the human counterparts of Ci, the GLI transcription factors. Since Ci and GLI are targets of Hedgehog signaling in development and morphogenesis, it is expected that FU plays an important role in Sonic, Desert and/or Indian Hedgehog induced cellular signaling. RESULTS: The FU gene was identified on chromosome 2q35 at 217.56 Mb and its exon-intron organization determined. The human developmental disorder Syndactyly type 1 (SD1) maps to this region on chromosome 2 and the FU coding region was sequenced using genomic DNA from an affected individual in a linked family. While no FU mutations were found, three single nucleotide polymorphisms were identified. The expression pattern of FU was thoroughly investigated and all examined tissues express FU. It is also clear that different tissues express transcripts of different sizes and some tissues express more than one transcript. By means of nested PCR of specific regions in RT/PCR generated cDNA, it was possible to verify two alternative splicing events. This also suggests the existence of at least two additional protein isoforms besides the FU protein that has previously been described. This long FU and a much shorter isoform were compared for the ability to regulate GLI1 and GLI2. None of the FU isoforms showed any effects on GLI1 induced transcription but the long form can enhance GLI2 activity. Apparently FU did not have any effect on SUFU induced inhibition of GLI. CONCLUSIONS: The FU gene and its genomic structure was identified. FU is a candidate gene for SD1, but we have not identified a pathogenic mutation in the FU coding region in a family with SD1. The sequence information and expression analyses show that transcripts of different sizes are expressed and subjected to alternative splicing. Thus, mRNAs may contain different 5'UTRs and encode different protein isoforms. Furthermore, FU is able to enhance the activity of GLI2 but not of GLI1, implicating FU in some aspects of Hedgehog signaling.
Oculodentodigital dysplasia (ODDD) is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by pleiotropic developmental anomalies of the limbs, teeth, face and eyes that was shown recently to be caused by mutations in the gap junction protein alpha 1 gene (GJA1), encoding connexin 43 (Cx43). In the course of performing an N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea mutagenesis screen, we identified a dominant mouse mutation that exhibits many classic symptoms of ODDD, including syndactyly, enamel hypoplasia, craniofacial anomalies and cardiac dysfunction. Positional cloning revealed that these mice carry a point mutation in Gja1 leading to the substitution of a highly conserved amino acid (G60S) in Cx43. In vivo and in vitro studies revealed that the mutant Cx43 protein acts in a dominant-negative fashion to disrupt gap junction assembly and function. In addition to the classic features of ODDD, these mutant mice also showed decreased bone mass and mechanical strength, as well as altered hematopoietic stem cell and progenitor populations. Thus, these mice represent an experimental model with which to explore the clinical manifestations of ODDD and to evaluate potential intervention strategies.
A major function of the limb bud apical ectodermal ridge (AER) is to produce fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) that signal to the underlying mesenchyme. Previous studies have suggested that of the four FGF genes specifically expressed in the mouse AER, Fgf8 is unique not only in its expression pattern, but also because it is the only such FGF gene that causes limb skeletal abnormalities when individually inactivated. However, when both Fgf8 and Fgf4 are simultaneously inactivated in the AER, the limb does not develop. One possible explanation for these observations is that although both of these FGF family members contribute to limb development, Fgf8 has functions that Fgf4 cannot perform. To test this hypothesis, we used a novel method to substitute Fgf4 for Fgf8 expression in the developing limb bud by concomitantly activating a conditional Fgf4 gain-of-function allele and inactivating an Fgf8 loss-of-function allele in the same cells via Cre-mediated recombination. Our data show that when Fgf4 is expressed in place of Fgf8, all of the skeletal defects caused by inactivation of Fgf8 are rescued, conclusively demonstrating that FGF4 can functionally replace FGF8 in limb skeletal development. We also show that the increase in FGF signaling that occurs when the Fgf4 gain-of-function allele is activated in a wild-type limb bud causes formation of a supernumerary posterior digit (postaxial polydactyly), as well as cutaneous syndactyly between all the digits. These data underscore the importance of controlling the level of FGF gene expression for normal limb development.
OBJECTIVE: To identify structural birth defects that occur in association with oral clefts. METHODS: Data were obtained from a birth defects registry and included all infants and fetuses with cleft palate without cleft lip or cleft lip with or without cleft palate delivered from 1986 to 2001. For 47 specific structural birth defects, rates among oral cleft cases were compared with the rates among all infants and fetuses with major birth defects, excluding those with oral clefts. RESULTS: Among cleft palate only cases, the rates were significantly higher than expected for encephalocele, microcephaly, and syndactyly. Among cases of cleft lip with or without cleft palate, the rates were significantly higher than expected for anophthalmia/microphthalmia, single ventricle, reduction deformity of upper limbs, and reduction deformity of lower limbs. When cases of cleft palate only and cleft lip with or without cleft palate were compared as to the rates for particular birth defects, the rates of the defects were either higher or lower than expected in both oral cleft categories for 38 (81%) of the defects. CONCLUSIONS: Certain birth defects were more frequently associated with oral clefts than might be expected. For the majority of defects, their patterns of association were similar between cleft palate without cleft lip and cleft lip with or without cleft palate.
Six congenital hypoplastic anemia (CHA) patients from five families who have been followed from 2 months to 28 years are presented. Mild hypoplastic anemia in a 13-year-old girl was associated with clinodactyly of the fifth finger on both hands, shortness in the proximal phalanges on all fingers, and syndactyly between the second and third toes and short fourth toe on the right foot. These abnormalities, except for clinodactyly, have not been reported previously in CHA. In one of the five families genetic transmission was thought to be autosomal-dominant since both the father and the son had the disease. Therapy with corticosteroids was initiated in all patients at the ages of 3.5 months to 13 years. Complete or near-complete recovery of anemia was obtained.
A 17-year-old female with Goltz's syndrome was examined because of visual acuity loss in her right eye. Ocular examination revealed microcornea, iris, choroid and optic disc coloboma in the right eye. There were several erthematous and hyperpigmented areas on the body. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the orbits and brain demonstrated right optic nerve hypoplasia and diffuse cortical and cerebellar atrophy. Skeletal manifestations were short stature, scoliosis, syndactyly, clinodactyly, and osteopathia striata. Dental defects included hypodontia, developmental defects, and malocclusion. There were multiple papillomatous lesions on the lids and perioral skin and the nose was asymmetric. Her mental development was apparently normal. She had left bifid ureter and renal pelvis, scant hair on the pubic and genital region, and poor breast development. Histopathologic examination of the biopsy taken from a characteristic skin lesion revealed attenuated epidermis, hypoplastic dermis, and subcutaneous fat close to epidermis. Immunofluorescence staining was negative for IgG, IgM, IgA, C3, C4, fibrin, and albumin. Ultrastructural examination showed that no viral particles were present. Prometaphase chromosome analysis revealed a normal 46, XX female karyotype. Cortical and cerebellar atrophy can occur in a patient with Goltz's syndrome.