Pathological case of the month: Desbuquois syndrome.
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We report on a two-generation family exhibiting dominant inheritance of complex polysyndactyly associated with hypothalamic hamartoma. These individuals have some manifestations of Pallister-Hall syndrome (PHS), but their phenotype is milder. The proposita is a 16-year-old girl with polysyndactyly of the hands and feet, short stature, and a large hypothalamic hamartoma. Her brother and father also have polysyndactyly and a hypothalamic mass on MRI scan. All three have normal appearance and intelligence, with normal pituitary function. Several other paternal relatives have polysyndactyly as well. We propose that this family may represent a clinically and perhaps genetically distinct entity from PHS, based on normal survival, normal intelligence, lack of endocrine dysfunction or facial anomalies, and few other structural malformations. Linkage analysis is in progress to determine whether this represents a benign form of PHS or a genetically separate condition. The phenotypic differences between these cases and classic PHS have important prognostic and recurrence risk implications.
We report on an 8.5-year-old boy with hypomelanosis of Ito (HI) who has an abnormal MRI of the brain but is neurologically normal. There have been many reports of abnormal brain imaging studies in patients with HI, but all reported patients have had abnormal neurologic findings or symptoms. Our patient has had serial, stable head MRI white matter changes and has remained neurologically normal without any neurologic sequelae.
Hereditary developmental abnormalities of the upper or lower limbs in humans are easily recognizable phenotypes that can be used in the mapping and cloning of genes involved in normal human development. We studied a large Indian pedigree (UR002) with an autosomal dominant triphalangeal thumb (TPT) and polysyndactyly (PSD). The abnormalities were present only in the upper limbs, and the phenotype was fully penetrant. The expression of the phenotype was variable and ranged from unilateral TPT to bilateral TPT, preaxial du-, tri-, or quadruplication of the thumb, or syndactyly of multiple thumbs. There were 112 affected individuals in the pedigree. Previous linkage analyses on apparently similar phenotypes have identified a locus at 7q36 [Heutink et al., 1994, Nature Genet 6:287-291; Tsukurov et al., 1994]. To map the gene responsible for the TPT-PSD in family UR002, we performed linkage analysis in DNA from 47 affected and 7 normal individuals. Marker D7S550, located at 7q36, yielded a maximum LOD score of 11.31 at theta = 0.00. Additional markers in the region also showed no recombination. These data indicate that the gene responsible for the hand abnormality in pedigree UR002 maps to the same region as that in previous pedigrees with similar phenotype. Further analyses of recombinants among all the linked families by using new polymorphic markers will narrow the critical genomic region and facilitate positional cloning of the elusive gene.
We report on the first known Bedouin family with Greig cephalopolysyndactyly syndrome (MIM 175700). The index patient and his father shared pre- and postaxial polysyndactyly, mild mental retardation, and corpus callosum dysgenesis. Their phenotypic findings were compared with reported cases of both Greig cephalopolysyndactyly (GCPS) and acrocallosal syndromes. This family represents the second report of the rare occurrence of dysgenesis of the corpus callosum in GCPS.
An 18-year-old Japanese boy and a 10-year-old Chinese boy both had nearly complete cutaneous syndactyly of the fingers and toes, six diphalangeal fingers on each hand, six toes on each foot (except the right foot of patient 2), and short, deformed, and on occasion partially fused metacarpals and metatarsals. Neither had other malformations and were of normal intelligence. The accessory toes in patient 1 were mesoaxial, each situated between the hallux and the third toe, whereas those in patient 2 were postaxial. In view of these findings, the disorder in 2 individuals is likely to represent a hitherto undescribed type of nonsyndromic synpolydactyly.
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Several polydactylous mutants affect the pattern of asymmetry along the anteroposterior axis of the vertebrate limb. In talpid2, diplopodia1, and diplopodia4 chick limb mutants, there is a preaxial extension that results in broader limb buds. Talpid2 shows reduction of the long bones and 9-10 syndactylous digits, none of which are specifically recognizable as members of the normal digit complement. In diplopodia1 and diplopodia4 extra digits are present preaxially in addition to the normal digits. This phenotype resembles the duplications obtained by grafting a polarizing region to the anterior margin of the limb bud. The abnormal skeletal pattern along the anteroposterior limb axis in both mutants suggests alterations in the signaling pathways that mediate growth and patterning of the limb. In situ hybridization studies reveal that whereas shh transcripts are restricted to the posterior limb margins, HoxD, Bmp-2, and Fgf-4 genes are ectopically expressed in the anterior region of the talpid2, diplopodia1, and diplopodia4 limb buds. The results obtained give insights into the molecular basis of talpid2 and diplopodia mutations and also into the possible roles of shh, Bmp-2, HoxD, and Fgf-4 genes in vertebrate limb morphogenesis.
In 1927, Oluf Thomsen, in a classic paper, described a seven-generation family with autosomal dominant axial synpolydactyly (SPD)--the Vordingborgtyp of axis duplication and dysostosis. Expansion of a polyalanine tract in the HOXD13 gene is known to cause synpolydactyly. We have rediscovered part of the family described by Thomsen, and detected a 9 triplet polyalanine expansion within HOXD13segregating with the disorder. The phenotypic spectrum in mutation carriers ranged from severe to inapparent bone malformations. In the latter case, only dermatoglyphics revealed the genetic status.
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HOX genes encode a family of transcription factors of fundamental importance for body patterning during embryonic development. Humans, like most vertebrates, have 39 HOX genes organized into four clusters, with major roles in the development of the central nervous system, axial skeleton, gastrointestinal and urogenital tracts, external genitalia, and limbs. The first two limb malformations shown to be caused by mutations in the human HOX genes were synpolydactyly and hand-foot-genital syndrome, which result from mutations in HOXD13 and HOXA13, respectively. This review describes a variety of limb malformations now known to be caused by specific different mutations in these two genes, including polyalanine tract expansions, nonsense mutations, and missense mutations, many with phenotypic consequences that could not have been predicted from previous knowledge of mouse models or HOX protein function. Limb malformations may also result from chromosomal deletions involving the HOXD and HOXA clusters, and from regulatory mutations affecting single or multiple HOX genes.
A female infant with McKusick-Kaufman syndrome associated with esophageal atresia and distal tracheoesophageal fistula is presented. To the best of our knowledge, this is the second report in the literature of this association.
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