BMPR2 mutations found in Japanese patients with familial and sporadic primary pulmonary hypertension.

Primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH) is a potentially lethal disorder, in which heterozygous mutations within the bone morphogenetic protein type II receptor (BMPR2) gene (BMPR2) have been identified. We conducted a molecular study of BMPR2 mutations in 4 Japanese families with familial PPH and 30 Japanese patients with sporadic PPH, and found 13 different mutations, of which 10 were novel, including missense (n=2), nonsense (n=4), frameshift (n=3), and splice-donor site (n=1) mutations. In total, BMPR2 mutations were found in all 4 familial PPH cases and 12 (40%) of the sporadic PPH cases. Further, a majority of the mutations found were predicted to cause premature termination, as previously reported. In the 9 mutations found in the sporadic cases, 2 were shown to be de novo, 2 were shared in multiple cases, 1 was shared with an FPPH case, and 1 was the same as previously reported in Caucasian FPPH. These results indicate that a substantial portion of Japanese PPH patients carry BMPR2 mutations with considerable heterogeneity. Copyright 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.