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1: Am J Med Genet A. 2003 Sep 15;122A(1):24-9.Click here to read Links

Identification of three patients with a very mild form of Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome.

Langius FA, Waterham HR, Romeijn GJ, Oostheim W, de Barse MM, Dorland L, Duran M, Beemer FA, Wanders RJ, Poll-The BT.

Department of Metabolic Diseases, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome (SLOS) is an autosomal recessive malformation syndrome characterized by mental retardation, congenital anomalies, and growth deficiency. The syndrome is caused by a block in cholesterol biosynthesis at the level of 7-dehydrocholesterol reductase (7-DHCR), which results in elevated levels of the cholesterol precursor 7-dehydrocholesterol (7-DHC) and its isomer 8-dehydrocholesterol (8-DHC). We report on three patients from two families with a very mild clinical presentation of SLOS. Their plasma cholesterol values were normal and their plasma levels of 7- and 8- DHC were only slightly elevated. In cultured skin fibroblasts, a significant residual 7-DHCR activity was found. All three patients were compound heterozygotes for a novel mutation affecting translation initiation (M1L). Two of them had the common IVS8-1G>C null mutation and the third patient an E448K mutation in the 7-DHCR gene. Our findings emphasize the importance of using a sensitive method for measuring precursors of cholesterol in combination with mutation analysis to analyze patients with only minimal clinical SLOS-like signs. Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID: 12949967 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]