Skin ultrastructural findings in type 2 Gaucher disease: diagnostic implications
Name:
Publisher version
UMass Chan Affiliations
Lysosomal Disorders Treatment and Research ProgramIntellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center
Document Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2011-12-01Keywords
AdolescentBiopsy
Child
Child, Preschool
Diagnosis, Differential
Epidermis
Female
Gaucher Disease
Genetic Association Studies
HumansInfantMaleMicroscopy, ElectronMiddle AgedMutation, MissensePregnancyPrenatal DiagnosisPrognosisYoung AdultCellular and Molecular PhysiologyCongenital, Hereditary, and Neonatal Diseases and AbnormalitiesMolecular GeneticsNervous System DiseasesNutritional and Metabolic Diseases
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
BACKGROUND: Type 2 Gaucher disease is a rare and progressive subtype of this lysosomal storage disorder, marked by rapid, early-onset neurodegeneration. Distinguishing type 2 from types 1 and 3 Gaucher disease has remained challenging, due to the lack of a clear correlation between phenotype and enzymatic activity or genotype. beta-glucocerebrosidase, the enzyme deficient in Gaucher disease, also has an essential role in maintaining epidermal permeability function, by regulating the ratio of ceramides to glucosylceramides in the stratum corneum of the skin. OBJECTIVES: To further assess the diagnostic utility of epidermal evaluations in distinguishing patients with type 2 Gaucher disease in an expanded cohort. STUDY DESIGN: Epidermal samples were evaluated from twenty children with type 2, three patients with type 3 Gaucher disease and two adults with type 1 Gaucher disease with different clinical manifestations and genotypes. Electron microscopy on ruthenium tetroxide post-fixed tissue was performed. RESULTS: Compared to controls and subjects with type 1 and type 3 Gaucher disease, only patients with type 2 Gaucher disease displayed characteristic electron dense, non-lamellar clefts and immature-lamellar membranes. CONCLUSION: The appearance of characteristic alterations in epidermal ultrastructure provides an early and specific diagnostic tool to help in distinguishing type 2 from the other types of Gaucher disease.Source
Chan A, Holleran WM, Ferguson T, Crumrine D, Goker-Alpan O, Schiffmann R, Tayebi N, Ginns EI, Elias PM, Sidransky E. Skin ultrastructural findings in type 2 Gaucher disease: diagnostic implications. Mol Genet Metab. 2011 Dec;104(4):631-6. doi: 10.1016/j.ymgme.2011.09.008. Epub 2011 Sep 16. PubMed PMID: 21982627; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3224209. Link to article on publisher's siteDOI
10.1016/j.ymgme.2011.09.008Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/34807PubMed ID
21982627Related Resources
Link to Article in PubMedScopus Count
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Role of WFS1 in Regulating Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Signaling: A DissertationThe endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a multi-functional cellular compartment that functions in protein folding, lipid biosynthesis, and calcium homeostasis. Perturbations to ER function lead to the dysregulation of ER homeostasis, causing the accumulation of unfolded and misfolded proteins in the cell. This is a state of ER stress. ER stress elicits a cytoprotective, adaptive signaling cascade to mitigate stress, the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR). As long as the UPR can moderate stress, cells can produce the proper amount of proteins and maintain a state of homeostasis. If the UPR, however, is dysfunctional and fails to achieve this, cells will undergo apoptosis. Diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by persistent high blood glucose levels. The pathogenesis of this disease involves pancreatic β-cell dysfunction: an abnormality in the primary function of the β-cell, insulin production and secretion. Activation of the UPR is critical to pancreatic β-cell survival, where a disruption in ER stress signaling can lead to cell death and consequently diabetes. There are several models of ER stress leading to diabetes. Wolcott-Rallison syndrome, for example, occurs when there is a mutation in the gene encoding one of the master regulators of the UPR, PKR-like ER kinase (PERK). In this dissertation, we show that Wolfram Syndrome 1 (WFS1), an ER transmembrane protein, is a component of the UPR and is a downstream target of two of the master regulators of the UPR, Inositol Requiring 1 (IRE1) and PERK. WFS1 mutations lead to Wolfram syndrome, a non-autoimmune form of type 1 diabetes accompanied by optical atrophy and other neurological disorders. It has been shown that patients develop diabetes due to the selective loss of their pancreatic β-cells. Here we define the underlying molecular mechanism of β-cell loss in Wolfram syndrome, and link this cell loss to ER stress and a dysfunction in a component of the UPR, WFS1. We show that WFS1 expression is localized to the β-cell of the pancreas, it is upregulated during insulin secretion and ER stress, and its inactivation leads to chronic ER stress and apoptosis. This dissertation also reveals the previously unknown function of WFS1 in the UPR. Positive regulation of the UPR has been extensively studied, however, the precise mechanisms of negative regulation of this signaling pathway have not. Here we report that WFS1 regulates a key transcription factor of the UPR, activating transcription factor 6 (ATF6), through the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. WFS1 expression decreases expression levels of ATF6 target genes and represses ATF6-mediated activation of the ER stress response (ERSE) promoter. WFS1 recruits and stabilizes an E3 ubiquitin ligase, HMG-CoA reductase degradation protein 1 (HRD1), on the ER membrane. The WFS1-HRD1 complex recruits ATF6 to the proteasome and enhances its ubiquitination and proteasome-mediated degradation, leading to suppression of the UPR under non-stress conditions. In response to ER stress, ATF6 is released from WFS1 and activates the UPR to mitigate ER stress. This body of work reveals a novel role for WFS1 in the UPR, and a novel mechanism for regulating ER stress signaling. These findings also indicate that hyperactivation of the UPR can lead to cellular dysfunction and death. This supports the notion that tight regulation of ER stress signaling is crucial to cell survival. This unanticipated role of WFS1 for a feedback loop of the UPR is relevant to diseases caused by chronic hyperactivation of ER stress signaling network such as pancreatic β-cell death in diabetes and neurodegeneration.
-
Progress and prospects: gene therapy clinical trials (part 1)Over the last two decades gene therapy has moved from preclinical to clinical studies for many diseases ranging from single gene disorders such as cystic fibrosis and Duchenne muscular dystrophy, to more complex diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disorders. Gene therapy for severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) is the most significant success story to date, but progress in many other areas has been significant. We asked 20 leaders in the field succinctly to summarize and comment on clinical gene therapy research in their respective areas of expertise and these are published in two parts in the Progress and Prospect series.
-
Gaucher disease in the COVID-19 pandemic environment: The good, the bad and the unknownEarly in the course of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the rare disease community anticipated that patients with lysosomal and other metabolic disorders would be at increased risk for poor disease outcomes and mortality from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
