Zafer Emre, Meck Jeanne, Gerrad Liora, Pras Elon, Frydman Moshe, Reish Orit, Avni Isaac, Pras Eran
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA.
Mol Vis. 2008 Mar 14;14:530-2.
To describe a Jewish family of Libyan ancestry in which autosomal dominant congenital cataract segregates with an apparently balanced reciprocal chromosomal translocation.
Detailed family history and clinical data were recorded. Cytogenetic studies were performed on 13 family members.
Embryonal cataracts cosegregated through three generations with a balanced chromosomal translocation [t(3;5)(p22.3; p15.1)] while the unbalanced translocation product, 46,XY,-5,+der(5)t(3:5)(p22:p15.1), had multiple congenital anomalies without cataracts.
These observations suggest that an altered function of a gene at one of the translocation breakpoints on chromosome 3p22.3 or 5p15.1 is causally related to cataract development.