SADDAN

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What is SADDAN?

SADDAN (severe achondroplasia with developmental delay and acanthosis nigricans) is a rare disorder of bone growth characterized by skeletal, brain, and skin abnormalities.

All people with this condition have extremely short stature with particularly short arms and legs. Other features include unusual bowing of the leg bones; a small chest with short ribs and curved collar bones; short, broad fingers; and folds of extra skin on the arms and legs. Structural abnormalities of the brain cause seizures, profound developmental delay, and mental retardation. Several affected individuals also have had episodes in which their breathing slows or stops for short periods (apnea). Acanthosis nigricans, a progressive skin disorder characterized by thick, dark, velvety skin, is another characteristic feature of SADDAN that develops in infancy or early childhood.

How common is SADDAN?

This disorder is very rare; it has been described in only a small number of individuals worldwide.

What genes are related to SADDAN?

Mutations in the FGFR3 gene cause SADDAN.

The FGFR3 gene provides instructions for making a protein that is involved in the development and maintenance of bone and brain tissue. A mutation in this gene may cause the FGFR3 protein to be overly active, which leads to the disturbances in bone growth that are characteristic of this disorder. Researchers have not determined how the mutation disrupts brain development or causes acanthosis nigricans.

How do people inherit SADDAN?

SADDAN is considered an autosomal dominant disorder because one mutated copy of the FGFR3 gene in each cell is sufficient to cause the condition. The few described cases of SADDAN have been caused by new mutations in the FGFR3 gene and occurred in people with no history of the disorder in their family. No individuals with this disorder are known to have had children; therefore, the disorder has not been passed to the next generation.

Source: National Institutes of Health

Scientists at Okayama University publish research in achondroplasia cell biology

"To explore the molecular mechanisms that result in the different phenotypes, we investigated the kinetics of mutated versions of FGFR3. First, we assayed the phosphorylation states of the mutated FGFR3s and found that the level of phosphorylation in TDI-FGFR3 was lower than in ACH-FGFR3, although the other mutants were phosphorylated according to phenotypic severity. Second, we analyzed the duration of the phosphorylation. TDI-FGFR3 was not highly phosphorylated under ligand-free conditions, but the peak phosphorylation levels of TDI-FGFR3 and ACH-FGFR3 were maintained for 30 min after stimulation with FGF-1. Moreover, ligand-dependent phosphorylation of TDI-FGFR3, but not ACH-FGFR3, lasted for more than 8 h after FGF-1 administration. The other mutant proteins showed sustained phosphorylation independent of ligand presence. Third, we investigated the intracellular localization of the mutant proteins. Immunofluorescence analysis showed accumulations of TDII-FGFR3, SADDAN-FGFR3, and a portion of TDI-FGFR3 in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Based on these data, we concluded that sustained phosphorylation of FGFR3 causes chondrodysplasia, and the phenotypic severity depends on the proportion of ER-localized mutant FGFR3. In FGFR3 signaling, the transcription factor, signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1) inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis of chondrocytes. Here we reveal that phospholipase C gamma (PLCgamma) mediates FGFR3-induced STAT1 activation. Both PLCgamma and STAT1 were activated by FGFR3 signaling, but a dominant-negative form of PLCgamma (DN-PLCgamma) remarkably reduced STAT1 phosphorylation. Apoptosis assays revealed that the constitutively active forms of FGFR3 (TDII-FGFR3) and STAT1 (STAT1-C) induce apoptosis of chondrogenic ATDC5 cells via caspase activity. DN-PLCgamma reduced the apoptosis of ATDC5 cells expressing TDII-FGFR3, but over-expression of both DN-PLCgamma and STAT1-C induced apoptosis," wrote D. Harada and colleagues, Okayama University.

The researchers concluded: "Therefore, we conclude that a PLCgamma-STAT1 pathway mediates apoptotic signaling by FGFR3."

Harada and colleagues published their study in Bone (Sustained phosphorylation of mutated FGFR3 is a crucial feature of genetic dwarfism and induces apoptosis in the ATDC5 chondrogenic cell line via PLCgamma-activated STAT1. Bone, 2007;41(2):273-81).

Additional information can be obtained by contacting D. Harada, Okayama University, Dept. of Pediatrics, Graduate School of Medicine and Dentistry, 2-5-1 Shikata-Cho, Okayama 700-8558, Japan.

The publisher of the journal Bone can be contacted at: Elsevier Science Inc., 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010-1710, USA.

Keywords: Japan, Okayama, Achondroplasia Cell Biology, Achondroplasia, Apoptosis, Bone, Cell Biology, Dermatology, Dwarfism, Dysplasia, Genetics, Orthopedics.

This article was prepared by Life Science Weekly editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2007, Life Science Weekly via NewsRx.com.