Screening and detection of gene mutations in Japanese patients with Fabry disease by non-radioactive single-stranded conformation polymorphism analysis.

We have applied non-radioactive polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-single-stranded conformation polymorphism (SSCP) to the detection of gene mutations causing Fabry disease. Nineteen of 22 known mutations were detected as electrophoretic mobility shifts on PCR-SSCP analysis. Then, DNA from newly diagnosed Japanese patients with the classical form of Fabry disease was subjected to PCR-SSCP analysis, and 4 novel mutations (1 small deletion, 1 nonsense mutation and 2 missense mutations) and 1 neutral polymorphism were identified. Furthermore, identification of an asymptomatic heterozygote and a hemizygote with moderate clinical manifestations was successfully achieved by application of this method to a family with the variant form of Fabry disease. PCR-SSCP is useful for the gene diagnosis of etiologically heterogeneous Fabry disease.