Khouloud Rjiba1,2,3, Hédia Ayech4, Olfa Kraiem5, Wafa Slimani1,2,3, Afef Jelloul1, Imen Ben Hadj Hmida1, Nabiha Mahdhaoui4, Ali Saad1,3, Soumaya Mougou-Zerelli6,7. 1. Laboratory of Human Cytogenetics, Molecular Genetics and Biology of Reproduction, Farhat Hached University Teaching Hospital, Sousse, Tunisia. 2. Higher Institute of Biotechnology, Monastir University, Monastir, Tunisia. 3. Unité de Services Communs en Génétique Humaine, Faculté de Médecine de Sousse, Université de Sousse, Sousse, Tunisia. 4. Pediatric Department, Farhat Hached University Teaching Hospital, Sousse, Tunisia. 5. Pediatric Department, Regional Hospital, Kairouan, Tunisia. 6. Laboratory of Human Cytogenetics, Molecular Genetics and Biology of Reproduction, Farhat Hached University Teaching Hospital, Sousse, Tunisia. mougousoumaya@yahoo.fr. 7. Unité de Services Communs en Génétique Humaine, Faculté de Médecine de Sousse, Université de Sousse, Sousse, Tunisia. mougousoumaya@yahoo.fr.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Wolf-Hirschhorn (WHS) is a set of congenital physical anomalies and mental retardation associated with a partial deletion of the short arm of chromosome 4. To establish a genotype-phenotype correlation; we carried out a molecular cytogenetic analysis on two Tunisian WHS patients. Patient 1 was a boy of 1-year-old, presented a typical WHS phenotype while patient 2, is a boy of 2 days presented an hypospadias, a micropenis and a cryptorchidie in addition to the typical WHS phenotype. Both the array comparative genomic hybridization and fluorescence in situ hybridization techniques were used. RESULTS: Results of the analysis showed that patient 2 had a greater deletion size (4.8 Mb) of chromosome 4 than patient 1 (3.4 Mb). Here, we notice that the larger the deletion, the more genes are likely to be involved, and the more severe the phenotype is likely to be. If we analyze the uncommon deleted region between patient1 and patient 2 we found that the Muscle Segment Homeobox (MSX1) gene is included in this region. MSX1 is a critical transcriptional repressor factor, expressed in the ventral side of the developing anterior pituitary and implicated in gonadotrope differentiation. Msx1 acts as a negative regulatory pituitary development by repressing the gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) genes during embryogenesis. We hypothesized that the deletion of MSX1 in our patient may deregulate the androgen synthesis. CONCLUSION: Based on the MSX1 gene function, its absence might be indirectly responsible for the hypospadias phenotype by contributing to the spatiotemporal regulation of GnRH transcription during development.
BACKGROUND: Wolf-Hirschhorn (WHS) is a set of congenital physical anomalies and mental retardation associated with a partial deletion of the short arm of chromosome 4. To establish a genotype-phenotype correlation; we carried out a molecular cytogenetic analysis on two Tunisian WHSpatients. Patient 1 was a boy of 1-year-old, presented a typical WHS phenotype while patient 2, is a boy of 2 days presented an hypospadias, a micropenis and a cryptorchidie in addition to the typical WHS phenotype. Both the array comparative genomic hybridization and fluorescence in situ hybridization techniques were used. RESULTS: Results of the analysis showed that patient 2 had a greater deletion size (4.8 Mb) of chromosome 4 than patient 1 (3.4 Mb). Here, we notice that the larger the deletion, the more genes are likely to be involved, and the more severe the phenotype is likely to be. If we analyze the uncommon deleted region between patient1 and patient 2 we found that the Muscle Segment Homeobox (MSX1) gene is included in this region. MSX1 is a critical transcriptional repressor factor, expressed in the ventral side of the developing anterior pituitary and implicated in gonadotrope differentiation. Msx1 acts as a negative regulatory pituitary development by repressing the gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) genes during embryogenesis. We hypothesized that the deletion of MSX1 in our patient may deregulate the androgen synthesis. CONCLUSION: Based on the MSX1 gene function, its absence might be indirectly responsible for the hypospadias phenotype by contributing to the spatiotemporal regulation of GnRH transcription during development.
Authors: Jotin Marango; Manabu Shimoyama; Hitomi Nishio; Julia A Meyer; Dong-Joon Min; Andres Sirulnik; Yolanda Martinez-Martinez; Marta Chesi; P Leif Bergsagel; Ming-Ming Zhou; Samuel Waxman; Boris A Leibovitch; Martin J Walsh; Jonathan D Licht Journal: Blood Date: 2007-12-21 Impact factor: 22.113