1/4. Fetal mesenchymal stem-cell engraftment in bone after in utero transplantation in a patient with severe osteogenesis imperfecta.BACKGROUND: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are progenitors of mesenchymal tissues such as bone, cartilage, and adipose. adult human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-matched MSC have been used in cellular therapies of bone disorders such as osteogenesis imperfecta, with promising results. methods: A female fetus with multiple intrauterine fractures, diagnosed as severe osteogenesis imperfecta, underwent transplantation with allogeneic HLA-mismatched male fetal MSC in the 32nd week of gestation. Engraftment analyses of donor cells, immunologic reaction against donor cells, and the well-being of the patient were assessed. RESULTS: At 9 months of age, on slides stained for osteocalcin or osteopontin, a centromeric XY-specific probe revealed 0.3% of XY-positive cells in a bone biopsy specimen. Whole Y genome fluorescent in situ hybridization staining showed a median of 7.4% Y-positive cells (range, 6.8%-16.6%). Bone histology showed regularly arranged and configurated bone trabeculae. Patient lymphocyte proliferation against donor MSC was not observed in co-culture experiments performed in vitro after MSC injection. Complementary bisphosphonate treatment was begun at 4 months. During the first 2 years of life, three fractures were noted. At 2 years of corrected age, psychomotor development was normal and growth followed the same channel, -5 SD. CONCLUSIONS: The authors' findings show that allogeneic fetal MSC can engraft and differentiate into bone in a human fetus even when the recipient is immunocompetent and HLA-incompatible.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = hybridization (Clic here for more details about this article) |
2/4. A de novo G to T transversion in a pro-alpha 1 (I) collagen gene for a moderate case of osteogenesis imperfecta. Substitution of cysteine for glycine 178 in the triple helical domain.Cultured fibroblasts from a patient affected with a moderate form of osteogenesis imperfecta were defective for the synthesis of type I collagen molecules; about half of the alpha 1(I) chains contained a cysteine residue in the triple helical domain and a disulfide link formed when two mutant alpha 1(I) chains were incorporated into a type I collagen heterotrimer. The proband's parents were clinically and biochemically normal. The cysteine was localized within peptide alpha 1(I)CB8 between residues 170 and 200 of the triple helical domain using a chemical procedure with 2-nitro-5-thiocyanobenzoic acid (Tenni, R., Rossi, A., Valli, M., Mottes, M., Pignatti, P. F., and Cetta, G. (1990) Matrix 10, 20-26). Type I procollagen heterotrimers containing either one or two mutant chains showed (i) a slight abnormality in secretion from cells; (ii) a low degree of post-translational overmodifications; (iii) the same, but lower than normal, thermal stability. Total rna was isolated from the proband's dermal fibroblast cultures, and cDNAs for pro-alpha 1(I) were prepared d using total rna. A portion of cDNA, coding for the region encompassing residues 119-193 of alpha 1(I) triple helical domain, was amplified by polymerase chain reaction. A single base pair mismatch was identified by chemical cleavage of dna.dna heteroduplexes, indicating a possible substitution of a guanine in the triplet coding for glycine 178 or 181. The same unique mismatch was detected by chemical cleavage in about one-half of the molecules in heteroduplexes formed between patient's pro-alpha 1(I) mRNAs and a normal cDNA probe. The amplified products were cloned and sequenced, confirming the heterozygous nature of the patient and demonstrating the presence and the location of a missense mutation; a single T for G substitution was found in the first base of the triplet coding for residue 178 of alpha 1(I) triple helical domain, leading to a cysteine for glycine substitution. Allele-specific oligonucleotide hybridization to amplified dna confirmed a de novo point mutation in the proband's genome. The findings in this patient are in accord with the phenotypic gradient model, which correlates the localization of the structural defect with the clinical outcome of osteogenesis imperfecta. The mutant protein has some properties that differ from the caused by the cysteine for glycine 175 substitution, suggesting a direct influence of the neighboring amino acids on the effects of the mutation.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = hybridization (Clic here for more details about this article) |
3/4. Variable expression of osteogenesis imperfecta in a nuclear family is explained by somatic mosaicism for a lethal point mutation in the alpha 1(I) gene (COL1A1) of type I collagen in a parent.fibroblasts from a man with a mild form of osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) and from his son with perinatal lethal OI (OI type II) produced normal and abnormal type I procollagen molecules. The abnormal molecules synthesized by both cell strains contained one or two pro alpha 1(I) chains in which the glycine at position 550 of the triple-helical domain was substituted by arginine as the result of a G-to-A transition in the first base of the glycine codon. Cells from the mother produced only normal type I procollagen molecules. By allele-specific oligonucleotide hybridization to amplified genomic sequences from paternal tissues we determined that the mutant allele accounted for approximately 50% of the COL1A1 alleles in fibroblasts, 27% of those in blood, and 37% of those in sperm. These findings demonstrate that the father is mosaic for the potentially lethal mutation and suggest that the OI phenotype is determined by the nature of the mutation and the relative abundance of the normal and mutant alleles in different tissues. Furthermore, the findings make it clear that some individuals with mild to moderate forms of OI are mosaic for mutations that will be lethal in their offspring.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = hybridization (Clic here for more details about this article) |
4/4. Deletion of 19 base pairs in intron 13 of the gene for the pro alpha 2(I) chain of type-I procollagen (COL1A2) causes exon skipping in a proband with type-I osteogenesis imperfecta.skin fibroblasts from a proband with mild osteogenesis imperfecta (type I) synthesized normal pro alpha 2(I) chains and shortened pro alpha 2(I) chains of type-I procollagen. The type-I collagen that contained the shortened alpha 2(I) chains was thermally unstable in that it was cleaved at 30 degrees C by a mixture of trypsin and chymotrypsin. The mutation generating the shortened pro alpha 2(I) chains was shown to be a deletion of 19 base pairs from 4 to 22 of intron 13 of the COL1A2 gene by sequencing of genomic dna and allele-specific oligonucleotide hybridization. The same mutation was found in the proband's affected father. Probe-protection experiments with S1 nuclease demonstrated that about 88% of the rna transcripts from the mutated allele were spliced by exon skipping from exon 12 to exon 14 and that about 12% of the rna transcripts were normally spliced. There was no evidence for use of cryptic splice sites, even though two cryptic splice sites had more favorable statistical scores and delta G degree 37 values than the new site that was created by the mutation and that was used for splicing of 12% of the transcripts into a normal mRNA. Comparison of the results with observations on 17 previously reported mutations that produced in-frame deletions of amino acids from the triple-helical domain of type-I collagen indicated that deletions in the N-terminal half of the alpha 2(I) chain tended to produce milder phenotypes than similar deletions elsewhere in the alpha 1(I) or alpha 2(I) chains.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = hybridization (Clic here for more details about this article) |