Yang Zhenglin, Lin Wei, Moshfeghi Darius M, Thirumalaichary Sukanya, Li Xi, Jiang Li, Zhang Heidi, Zhang Sheng, Kaiser Peter K, Traboulsi Elias I, Zhang Kang
Cole Eye Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Am J Ophthalmol. 2003 Feb;135(2):213-8. doi: 10.1016/s0002-9394(02)01815-9.
To describe a novel mutation in the RDS/Peripherin gene that results in a moderately severe form of adult-onset foveomacular dystrophy.
Observational case series.
Selected members of a family with adult-onset foveomacular dystrophy underwent complete ophthalmic evaluation, including fundus photography and fluorescein angiography, in a tertiary care referral center. The study population consisted of 12 members of a Caucasian kindred. After providing informed consent, patients donated blood for genomic DNA extraction and mutational screening using standard techniques. The main outcome measure were the presence of a RDS/Peripherin gene mutation in a patient with the disease and its absence in unaffected family members and controls.
Eight affected family members and no unaffected family members demonstrated a single guanine base deletion at nucleotide 112 that led to premature termination at amino acid 38 of RDS/Peripherin polypeptide. This frameshift mutation results in truncation of nearly 90% of the gene product, thus probably representing a null allele. That results in a relatively severe phenotype, with choroidal neovascularization developing in two patients and geographic atrophy involving the macula in three patients.
We describe a frameshift null mutation in the RDS/Peripherin gene associated with a relatively severe manifestation of adult-onset foveomacular dystrophy in affected family members.
