ABSTRACT
Heterozygous single nucleotide variants (SNVs) or copy-number variant deletions involving FOXF1 or its distant lung-specific enhancer on chromosome 16q24.1 have been identified in 80-90% of patients with Alveolar capillary dysplasia with misalignment of pulmonary veins (ACDMPV), a lethal neonatal lung developmental disorder. We describe a four-generation family with a deceased ACDMPV neonate, her sibling from the electively terminated pregnancy, healthy mother with a history of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), an unaffected aunt, an aunt deceased due to findings consistent with ACDMPV, and a reportedly unaffected grandmother, all with the frameshifting variant c.881_902dup (p.Gly302Profs*46) in FOXF1, and a deceased great-grandmother with a history of PAH. Genome sequencing analyses in the proband's unaffected mother revealed a non-coding putative regulatory SNV rs560517434-A within the lung-specific distant FOXF1 enhancer in trans to the FOXF1 frameshift mutation. Functional testing of this variant using an in vitro luciferase reporter assay showed that it increased FOXF1 promoter activity 10-fold. Our studies further demonstrate that non-coding SNVs in the FOXF1 enhancer region can rescue the lethal ACDMPV phenotype and support the compound inheritance gene dosage model.
Subject(s)
Forkhead Transcription Factors , Persistent Fetal Circulation Syndrome , Female , Forkhead Transcription Factors/genetics , Frameshift Mutation , Humans , Infant, Newborn , Nucleotides , Persistent Fetal Circulation Syndrome/genetics , Pulmonary Alveoli/abnormalities , Sequence DeletionABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Intronic WT1 mutations are usually causative of Frasier syndrome with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis as the characteristic nephropathy. Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis is not commonly associated with disorders of sex development but has been recently identified as a WT1-associated nephropathy, but usually in cases of exonic mutations in either isolated Wilms tumor or Denys-Drash syndrome. METHODS: The clinical and genetic data from 3 individuals are reported. RESULTS: This report describes the kidney manifestations in 3 individuals from 2 unrelated families with Frasier syndrome intronic WT1 mutations, noting that 2 of the 3 individuals have histologically confirmed membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis. CONCLUSIONS: These case reports support expansion of the clinical spectrum of the kidney phenotypes associated with Frasier syndrome providing evidence of an association between WT1 mutation and an immune complex-related membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis. A higher resolution version of the Graphical abstract is available as Supplementary information.
