| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
Original Studies |
Third Division, Department of Medicine, Kobe University School of Medicine (H.K., Y.T., K.I., T.T., Y.O., H.A., K.C.), Kobe, Japan; Nose Clinic (O.N.), Kobe, Japan; and Department of Pediatrics, Osaka University School of Medicine (H.T.), Osaka, Japan
Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Hidesuke Kaji, Third Division, Department of Medicine, Kobe University School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan.
| Abstract |
|---|
|
|
|---|
| Introduction |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Kou et al. (6) and we (7) previously reported a heterozygous missense mutation, Pro561Thr, located in the cytoplasmic domain of the GHR gene in patients with short stature. However, the functional significance of this heterozygous mutation is questionable, because we found this heterozygous mutation in approximately 15% of the normal population, and there was no correlation with height (8). Recently, Woods et al. (3) reported on a Laron syndrome patient with a high GH-binding protein (GHBP) level caused by a homozygous splice site mutation of the GHR gene that resulted in skipping of exon 8, which codes for a transmembrane domain, and that also resulted in exon 9 being translated out of the reading frame with a stop codon at the fifth amino acid downstream.
We report here novel compound heterozygous mutations of the GHR gene exons 7 and 10, which encode part of the extracellular and cytoplasmic domains, respectively, as the cause of severe growth retardation in a patient.
| Subjects and Methods |
|---|
|
|
|---|
The clinical profile of this girl patient has been reported previously (9). She was born at full term to nonconsanguineous parents. She was 47 cm in height and 3130 g in weight at birth. In her family, height was 165 cm (-0.96 SD) in her father, 153 cm (-0.92 SD) in her mother, and 138 cm (-0.03 SD) in her elder brother at the age of 10 yr and 5 months. She had severe but proportional growth retardation with 71 cm (-7.6 SD) in height, 8.4 kg (-3.6 SD) in weight, 2 yr of bone age, and with a prominent forehead and small nose with retracted bridge at the age of 4 yr and 2 months. Her baseline plasma GH level was as high as 21.659.4 ng/mL, with enhanced peak plasma GH (ng/mL) levels of 89.5 in response to arginine, 79.5 in response to glucagon, >90 in response to L-dopa, and 377 in response to GHRH at 4 yr and 10 months. When plasma insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) level (µg/L) was measured by direct RIA, it was refractory to daily subcutaneous administration of recombinant human GH (0.32 U/kg per day) for 10 days according to the protocol by Rudman et al. (10): 87.5 at day 0, 87.9 at day 1, 95.9 at day 3, 96.8 at day 5, and 82.6 at day 10 of GH administration at the age of 5 yr. Height velocity was 0.7 and 0 cm/2 months before and after GH administration, respectively. At the age of 6 yr and 2 months, the plasma IGF-I levels were <4 µg/L by RIA after extraction with acid and ethanol, which was more reliable than direct RIA. At the age of 9 yr and 1 month she was 85.4 cm in height (-8.0 SD), 11.8 kg in weight (-3.3 SD), and 3 yr of bone age. The plasma IGF-I levels were still <4 µg/L by RIA after extraction. The basal plasma IGF-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) levels (milligrams per liter) measured with a RIA (11) were 0.300.34 in this patient (the normal value is 3.10 ± 0.46). Then treatment with IGF-I was started at a dose of 0.15 mg/kg once a day. Plasma IGFBP-3 level was 2.15 in this patient at the age of 13 yr (the normal value is 3.88 ± 0.59). It was 2.2 in her father, 5.67 in her mother (the normal value is 3.25 ± 0.49), and 3.5 in her brother at the age of 15 yr and 5 months (the normal value is 3.53 ± 0.49). Plasma GHBP levels (picomoles per liter), measured with a ligand-mediated immunofunctional assay, were <15.6 in the patient, 136 in her father, 98.6 in her mother, and 202 in her brother (the normal value is 222 ± 115 in men and 180 ± 92 in women).
DNA isolation, PCR, and direct sequencing of the GHR gene
Genomic DNA was extracted from the blood of the subject by the
following method as described previously (7, 8, 12). Whole blood (100
µL) was mixed with 400 µL of a 10 mM Tris-HCl buffer
(pH 7.5) containing 5 mM MgCl2, 0.32
M sucrose, and 1% Triton X-100. The mixture was
supplemented with proteinase K (10 mg/mL) and 10% SDS and then
incubated at 37 C for 30 min. The genomic DNA was extracted with phenol
and chloroform and precipitated with ethanol. The GHR gene fragment
from exon 2 to exon 10 was amplified with 0.5 U Taq
polymerase (Perkin Elmer Cetus, Norwalk, CT) in a final volume of 20
µL of a 20 mM Tris-HCl buffer (pH 8.3) containing 25
mM KCl, 0.25 mM deoxynucleotide triphosphates
(dNTPs), 2.5 mM MgCl2, and 250 mM
exon-specific primers including the sequence of M13 primers at the 5'
end of the forward or reverse primers as shown in Fig. 1a
. The reaction mixture was overlaid
with mineral oil and incubated using a thermocycler (Astec Co., Tokyo,
Japan) programmed to repeat the following cycle 35 times: 1 min at 94
C, 2 min at 52 C, and 2 min at 72 C. The amplified GHR gene was
electrophoresed on a 1% SeaPlaque agarose gel and purified by Wizard
PCR (Promega Co., Madison, WI). The amplified and purified GHR DNA was
directly cycle-sequenced using a M13 prism kit (Applied Biosystems,
Tokyo, Japan) with the dideoxy chain-termination method and applied on
an autosequencer (ABI prism 377 DNA sequencer, Applied Biosystems). The
results were analyzed using DNAsis (Hitachi Software Engineering
Co., Tokyo, Japan). To confirm these mutations in the patient and her
family, the PCR-amplified DNA fragments of exon 7 were digested with
MaeI, and those in exon 10 with BsmI, which could
digest only the mutant alleles.
|
RT-PCR was performed as described previously (7, 12). Briefly, lymphocytes were separated by density-gradient centrifugation with the monopoly resolving medium Ficoll-Hypaque (Flow Labs., Costa Mesa, CA). The RNA was extracted from the lymphocytes with the acid guanidinium isothiocyanate/phenol chloroform method (12). The RNA (0.5 µg) was reverse-transcribed with avian myeloblastosis virus reverse transcriptase (GIBCO BRL, Gaithersburg, MD) in a 20-µL reaction buffer containing dNTPs, random hexamers, RNase inhibitor, and MgCl2 at 37 C for 30 min, followed by heating at 95 C for 5 min. Then, 12 µL of the complementary DNA (cDNA) mixture was amplified with Taq polymerase (Perkin Elmer Cetus) in a buffer containing dNTPs, MgCl2, and primers designed to amplify from the nucleotide 681 in exon 7 to nucleotide 1015 in exon 10 (forward primer: GTGCGTGTGAGATCCAAACAACGA, and reverse primer: CACTGTGGAATTCGGGTTTATA). The PCR products were electrophoresed on 1% SeaPlaque agarose gels and visualized by staining with ethidium bromide. The amplified cDNA was purified by Wizard PCR and directly cycle-sequenced with the dideoxy chain-termination method using a dye terminator kit (Applied Biosystems) and an autosequencer.
| Results |
|---|
|
|
|---|
|
T at position 724 was identified in her
mother, who did not show the deletion of cytosine at position 981 (data
not shown). These results were confirmed by PCR-restriction fragment
length polymorphism (Fig. 3
T mutant at nucleotide
724, resulting in two fragments of 173 and 107 bp. In this patient and
her father and brother, but not her mother, one half of the PCR
products of exon 10 of the GHR gene (576 bp) were digested by
BsmI, which could digest only the mutant GHR gene with a C
deletion at nucleotide 981, resulting in two fragments of 513 and 63
bp, although the smaller fragment could not be clearly identified.
Neither the G
T transversion at 724 nor the C deletion at 981 was
identified in 20 control subjects (data not shown).
|
| Discussion |
|---|
|
|
|---|
The patients father and brother possessed the mutation of the C
deletion at nucleotide 981 in exon 10 in only one allele with the
normal sequence in the other allele. The mutation in her mother was
also heterozygous: one allele exhibited the G
T transversion at
nucleotide 724 in exon 7, and the other showed the normal sequence.
However, all of them had normal height and serum GHBP levels,
suggesting that the wild-type GHR expressed from the normal allele
could function sufficiently, or that the mutant GHR, if expressed, did
not have a dominant negative effect on normal GHR function.
Taken together, not only the G
T transversion at nucleotide 724 but
also the C deletion at nucleotide 981 were essential for the
pathogenesis of the patients growth failure. It should be determined
whether the mutated GHR with the C deletion at 981 is functional or not
if it is expressed. The previous study of truncated GHRs using
site-directed mutagenesis (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19) revealed that GHR1310 was
sufficient to bind GH (14) but not to associate with and phosphorylate
Jak2 (15), to stimulate Spi 2.1 gene promoter activity (16, 17), to
phosphorylate some signal-transducing molecules (18), or to induce two
GH-dependent cellular events (lipogenesis and protein synthesis) (19).
There are two possibilities to explain why GHBP was not detected in the
serum of this patient. One possibility is that the mutant allele with
the C deletion at 981 produced a truncated GHR that lacks the signal
transduction motif required for the generation of GHBP, an
extracellular domain of the GHR, although the mechanism of GHBP
generation is not fully understood yet (20, 21, 22). However, recent
reports (23, 24) have shown that a short isoform of the human GHR
truncating 97.5% of the intracellular domain of the receptor may be
involved in the increased release of GHBP, probably because of the lack
of a motif in box 2 required for receptor internalization (25).
Alternatively, this allele with the C deletion at 981 might not be
transcribed or translated. To elucidate these possibilities, we tried
to identify the expression of the mutant GHR mRNA in lymphocytes from
the patients father who had the heterozygous C deletion at 981 in the
GHR gene because, unfortunately, we could not obtain a large enough
blood sample to extract mRNA from the patient. The GHR mRNA could be
clearly detected in his lymphocytes with the RT-PCR method. However,
only the wild-type GHR cDNA was identified in his PCR products by
direct sequencing. Thus, it is likely that the mutant GHR mRNA encoding
the C deletion at 981 either could not be transcribed or, if it were
transcribed, was very unstable. It remains to be clarified why the mRNA
for the mutant GHR with the C deletion at 981 was not detected. It is
possible to speculate that an as yet undefined mutation might exist in
the other region like promoter of this mutant GHR gene allele affecting
gene transcription, or the structural change of GHR gene by C deletion
at 981 itself caused an instability or repressed transcription activity
of this mutant gene. Nevertheless, our results obtained up to now
indicate that neither of the mutant alleles could produce any
functional GHR, which is responsible for the patients severe growth
retardation and undetectable serum GHBP level.
| Acknowledgments |
|---|
| Footnotes |
|---|
Received May 5, 1997.
Revised July 9, 1997.
Accepted July 15, 1997.
| References |
|---|
|
|
|---|
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
P. Fang, S. Riedl, S. Amselem, K. L. Pratt, B. M. Little, G. Haeusler, V. Hwa, H. Frisch, and R. G. Rosenfeld Primary Growth Hormone (GH) Insensitivity and Insulin-Like Growth Factor Deficiency Caused by Novel Compound Heterozygous Mutations of the GH Receptor Gene: Genetic and Functional Studies of Simple and Compound Heterozygous States J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab., June 1, 2007; 92(6): 2223 - 2231. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
M Maamra, A Milward, H Z. Esfahani, L P Abbott, L A Metherell, M O Savage, A J L Clark, and R J M Ross A 36 residues insertion in the dimerization domain of the growth hormone receptor results in defective trafficking rather than impaired signaling J. Endocrinol., February 1, 2006; 188(2): 251 - 261. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
K. Iida, J. P. del Rincon, D.-S. Kim, E. Itoh, K. T. Coschigano, J. J. Kopchick, and M. O. Thorner Regulation of full-length and truncated growth hormone (GH) receptor by GH in tissues of lit/lit or bovine GH transgenic mice Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab, September 1, 2004; 287(3): E566 - E573. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
Z. Laron Laron Syndrome (Primary Growth Hormone Resistance or Insensitivity): The Personal Experience 1958-2003 J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab., March 1, 2004; 89(3): 1031 - 1044. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
A. Milward, L. Metherell, M. Maamra, M. J. Barahona, I. R. Wilkinson, C. Camacho-Hubner, M. O. Savage, C. M. Bidlingmaier, A. J. L. Clark, R. J. M. Ross, et al. Growth Hormone (GH) Insensitivity Syndrome due to a GH Receptor Truncated after Box1, Resulting in Isolated Failure of STAT 5 Signal Transduction J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab., March 1, 2004; 89(3): 1259 - 1266. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
M. Salerno, B. Balestrieri, E. Matrecano, A. Officioso, R. G. Rosenfeld, S. Di Maio, G. Fimiani, M. V. Ursini, and C. Pignata Abnormal GH Receptor Signaling in Children with Idiopathic Short Stature J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab., August 1, 2001; 86(8): 3882 - 3888. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
K. Iida, Y. Takahashi, H. Kaji, N. Onodera, M. O. Takahashi, Y. Okimura, H. Abe, and K. Chihara The C422F Mutation of the Growth Hormone Receptor Gene Is Not Responsible for Short Stature J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab., November 1, 1999; 84(11): 4214 - 4219. [Abstract] [Full Text] |
||||
![]() |
J. Wojcik, M. A. Berg, N. Esposito, M. E. Geffner, N. Sakati, E. O. Reiter, S. Dower, U. Francke, M.-C. Postel-Vinay, and J. Finidori Four Contiguous Amino Acid Substitutions, Identified in Patients with Laron Syndrome, Differently Affect the Binding Affinity and Intracellular Trafficking of the Growth Hormone Receptor J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab., December 1, 1998; 83(12): 4481 - 4489. [Abstract] [Full Text] |
||||
![]() |
J. L. Walker, P. A. Crock, S. N. Behncken, S. W. Rowlinson, L. M. Nicholson, T. J. C. Boulton, and M. J. Waters A Novel Mutation Affecting the Interdomain Link Region of the Growth Hormone Receptor in a Vietnamese Girl, and Response to Long-Term Treatment with Recombinant Human Insulin-Like Growth Factor-I and Luteinizing Hormone-Releasing Hormone Analogue J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab., July 1, 1998; 83(7): 2554 - 2561. [Abstract] [Full Text] |
||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| Endocrinology | Endocrine Reviews | J. Clin. End. & Metab. |
| Molecular Endocrinology | Recent Prog. Horm. Res. | All Endocrine Journals |