Yang Shuzhi, Dai Pu, Liu Xin, Kang Dongyang, Zhang Xin, Yang Weiyan, Zhou Chengyong, Yang Shiming, Yuan Huijun
Department of Otolaryngology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
PLoS One. 2013 Oct 23;8(10):e77149. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0077149. eCollection 2013.
Waardenburg Syndrome (WS) is an autosomal-dominant disorder characterized by sensorineural hearing loss and pigmentary abnormalities of the eyes, hair, and skin. Microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) gene mutations account for about 15% of WS type II (WS2) cases. To date, fewer than 40 different MITF gene mutations have been identified in human WS2 patients, and few of these were of Chinese descent. In this study, we report clinical findings and mutation identification in the MITF gene of 20 Chinese WS2 patients from 14 families. A high level of clinical variability was identified. Sensorineural hearing loss (17/20, 85.0%) and heterochromia iridum (20/20, 100.0%) were the most commonly observed clinical features in Chinese WS2 patients. Five affected individuals (5/20, 25.0%) had numerous brown freckles on the face, trunk, and limb extremities. Mutation screening of the MITF gene identified five mutations: c.20A>G, c.332C>T, c.647_649delGAA, c.649A>G, and c.763C>T. The total mutational frequency of the MITF gene was 21.4% (3/14), which is significantly higher than the 15.0% observed in the fair-skinned WS2 population. Our results indicate that MITF mutations are relatively common among Chinese WS2 patients.
瓦登伯革氏综合征(WS)是一种常染色体显性疾病,其特征为感音神经性听力损失以及眼睛、头发和皮肤的色素异常。小眼相关转录因子(MITF)基因突变约占II型WS(WS2)病例的15%。迄今为止,在人类WS2患者中已鉴定出不到40种不同的MITF基因突变,其中很少有来自中国血统的。在本研究中,我们报告了来自14个家庭的20例中国WS2患者的临床发现及MITF基因突变鉴定情况。发现了高度的临床变异性。感音神经性听力损失(17/20,85.0%)和虹膜异色症(20/20,100.0%)是中国WS2患者中最常见的临床特征。五名受影响个体(5/20,25.0%)在面部、躯干和四肢有大量褐色雀斑。对MITF基因的突变筛查鉴定出五个突变:c.20A>G、c.332C>T、c.647_649delGAA、c.649A>G和c.763C>T。MITF基因的总突变频率为21.4%(3/14),显著高于白种人WS2人群中观察到的15.0%。我们的结果表明,MITF突变在中国WS2患者中相对常见。