Rare Variants in the Gene ALPL That Cause Hypophosphatasia Are Strongly Associated With Ovarian and Uterine Disorders.

CONTEXT

Mutations in alkaline phosphatase (AlkP), liver/bone/kidney (ALPL), which encodes tissue-nonspecific isozyme AlkP, cause hypophosphatasia (HPP). HPP is suspected by a low-serum AlkP. We hypothesized that some patients with bone or dental disease have undiagnosed HPP, caused by ALPL variants.

OBJECTIVE

Our objective was to discover the prevalence of these gene variants in the Vanderbilt University DNA Biobank (BioVU) and to assess phenotypic associations.

DESIGN

We identified subjects in BioVU, a repository of DNA, that had at least one of three known, rare HPP disease-causing variants in ALPL: rs199669988, rs121918007, and/or rs121918002. To evaluate for phenotypic associations, we conducted a sequential phenome-wide association study of ALPL variants and then performed a de-identified manual record review to refine the phenotype.

RESULTS

Out of 25,822 genotyped individuals, we identified 52 women and 53 men with HPP disease-causing variants in ALPL, 7/1000. None had a clinical diagnosis of HPP. For patients with ALPL variants, the average serum AlkP levels were in the lower range of normal or lower. Forty percent of men and 62% of women had documented bone and/or dental disease, compatible with the diagnosis of HPP. Forty percent of the female patients had ovarian pathology or other gynecological abnormalities compared with 15% seen in controls.

CONCLUSIONS

Variants in the ALPL gene cause bone and dental disease in patients with and without the standard biomarker, low plasma AlkP. ALPL gene variants are more prevalent than currently reported and underdiagnosed. Gynecologic disease appears to be associated with HPP-causing variants in ALPL.