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Original Studies |
Departments of Pediatrics (H.L.M.) and Nuclear Medicine (P.S.), University Hospital, D-97080 Würzburg; and the Department of Pediatrics, University Hospital (E.S.), 50924 Köln, Germany; and the Department of Environmental Medicine, Osaka Medical Center and Institute for Maternal and Child Health (M.Y., T.M., T.K., K.O.), Izumi, Osaka 594-1101, Japan
Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Keiichi Ozono, M.D., Department of Environmental Medicine, Osaka Medical Center and Institute for Maternal and Child Health, 840 Murodo-cho, Izumi, Osaka 594-1101, Japan.
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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The TNSALP gene consists of 12 exons, and the coding exons are 212 (4). Approximately 50 different mutations have been identified in the TNSALP gene, and most of them were missense mutations (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17). Reported mutations associated with hypophosphatasia are scattered throughout the coding exons. The elucidation of the molecular heterogeneity underlying hypophosphatasia may contribute to our understanding of the clinical heterogeneity observed in this disorder. For example, mutations at nucleotides 747, 1057, and 1309 are associated with mild (childhood and adult-type) hypophosphatasia (18). In addition, mutagenesis experiments revealed that the enzymatic activity of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) mutants seems to correlate with the severity of the disease to some extent (17). However, further analysis of the function of the mutated ALP is necessary to determine a genotype-phenotype correlation, especially for the mild form, because the enzymatic activity of ALP protein may differ in vivo and in vitro.
Although we can speculate that the mutations responsible for the dominantly inherited hypophosphatasia inhibit the enzymatic activity of wild-type ALP, no study has proved the dominant negative effect of mutated ALP to date. It is known that ALP exhibits enzymatic activity by forming dimer or tetramer complexes. Therefore, the mutant ALP found in hypophosphatasia with dominant inheritance may suppress the wild-type ALP activity through multimer formation. A similar type of mechanism has been reported for osteogenesis imperfecta, generalized thyroid hormone resistance, long QT syndrome, and others (19, 20, 21).
In the present report we describe a family with an autosomal dominant form of hypophosphatasia and the study of the TNSALP gene in all family members. The mutation (Asp361Val) of the TNSALP gene was found to be heterozygous in affected members. The mutation caused not only loss of enzymatic activity of the ALP enzyme, but also inhibition of the function of wild-type ALP.
| Materials and Methods |
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The father of the family (38 yr old, Caucasian) had premature
loss of deciduous teeth shortly before 2 yr of age. He complained of
the onset of low back pain at the age of 24 yr. The pain became
chronic, involving the lower extremities, and exacerbated during
physical activity despite all forms of conservative therapy.
Neurological deficits or reflex pathologies were not found. A magnetic
resonance imaging study of the knees revealed a 2-cm area of focal
marrow edema in the lateral femoral condyle, which was interpreted as
an early sign of osteoarthritis. A whole body
99mTc bone scintigraphy demonstrated symmetric
foci of increased activity in the patello-femoral joints, consistent
with mild degenerative osteoarthropathy. Reduced serum ALP activity and
elevated phosphoethanolamine (PEA) excretion led to the diagnosis of
hypophosphatasia of the adult type in the father (Table 1
and Fig. 1
).
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General methods
Serum was obtained by centrifugation of whole blood samples and
was frozen within 2 h of collection. Unless otherwise stated,
biochemical analyses of serum and urine were performed using commercial
assay kits. The isoforms of ALP were quantified after electrophoretic
separation on titan gels using a commercial assay (Helena
Diagnostika, Sunderland, Great Britain). Urinary PEA excretion
and serum concentrations of PEA and procollagen 1 peptide were
determined in all four children using methods described previously (22)
(Table 1
). Type 1 procollagen was measured using a commercial RIA
(Orion, Espoo, Finland).The cross-link, deoxypyridinoline, was
quantified using a chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassay
(Diagnostic Products, Los Angels, CA). Bone density was
estimated by peripheral quantitative computed tomography (Stratec
Medizintechnik, Pforzheim, Germany) (23).
Sequence analysis. DNA sequencing was performed after extraction of genomic DNA from the peripheral mononuclear cells. Exons 212 were amplified using PCR primers previously described (14). The fragments amplified by PCR were sequenced directly or after the subcloning into pT7-Blue T-vector (Novagen, Madison, WI), using a model 377 sequencer (Perkin-Elmer Corp., Norwalk, CT) and the BigDye terminator technology (Perkin-Elmer Corp.). The nucleotide and amino acid numbers are designated relative to the initiation of complementary DNA (cDNA) and the mature enzyme, respectively (24).
Mutagenesis and expression. Mutagenesis of the substitution of A at nucleotide 1309 for T, leading to the Asp361Val mutation (D361V), was achieved by the Kunkel method following the manufacturers recommendations (Gene Editor, Promega Corp., Madison, WI). Mutagenesis of the T to C conversion at nucleotide 1741, leading to the Val505Ala mutation (V505A), was achieved by PCR-mediated mutagenesis as reported previously (12). The human TNSALP cDNA was provided in the plasmid, pSV2Aalp, by Dr. P. S. Henthorn (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA), and an expression vector was constructed by the insertion of the cDNA into pcDNA3 vector (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA) (24). The expression vectors of the normal and mutated ALP cDNA were transfected into COS-7 cells by the lipofection method (Lipofectamine, Life Technologies, Inc., Grand Island, NY). The enzymatic activity of ALP was measured by the Lowry method, using p-nitrophenylphosphate as a substrate, 48 h after the transfection and was normalized with the amount of protein present (25).
Construction of the fusion proteins of ALP and green fluorescent protein (GFP). To distinguish wild-type ALP from mutants, we generated the fusion proteins of TNSALP and GFP-ALP. Expression vectors were reconstructed in pcDNA3.1 vector (Invitrogen) using synthesized nucleotides coding the signal peptide of TNSALP, GFP cDNA (238 amino acids), obtained by digestion of pGreen Lantern (Life Technologies, Inc.) with NotI, and the cDNA of mature TNSALP (507 amino acids in wild-type ALP) obtained from pSV2Aalp. In transient transfection experiments, the fusion proteins encoding expression vectors of wild-type (pcDNA-sig-GFP-ALP) and/or the same amount of plasmids for mutated ALPs without GFP (ALPD361V and ALPV505A) were transfected into COS-7 cells grown in a 60-mm dish using Lipofectamine (Life Technologies, Inc.). Forty-eight hours after the transfection, cells were lysed in 200 µl RIPA buffer [1% Triton X-100, 1% sodium deoxycholate, 0.1% SDS, 150 mM NaCl, 10 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.4), 5 mM ethylenediamine tetraacetate, and protease inhibitor cocktail (Roche Molecular Biochemicals, Mannheim, Germany)]. The fusion proteins were immunoprecipitated using monoclonal anti-GFP antibody (Roche Molecular Biochemicals) at 4 C for 3 h, followed by the incubation with protein A/G-conjugated agarose (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Inc., Santa Cruz, CA) at 4 C overnight. The agarose on which the immunocomplex was immobilized was washed with RIPA buffer and aliquoted. The aliquot of each sample was used for the ALP assay. An aliquot of the same sample was used for Western analysis using the mouse monoclonal anti-GFP antibody (Roche Molecular Biochemicals). After incubation with peroxidase-labeled antimouse IgG antibody (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, Aylesbury, UK), the immunocomplex was visualized by enhanced chemiluminescence (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech).
| Results |
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A missense mutation (A to T conversion at nucleotide 1309 of the cDNA) was detected in exon 10 (Asp to Val conversion at codon 361: D361V) in one allele of all affected members (father and all four children). An additional mutation (T to C conversion at nucleotide 1741 of the cDNA) was also found in exon 12 (Val to Ala conversion at codon 505: V505A) in one allele of the mother and three of the children. No other mutation was found in the entire coding region of the TNSALP cDNA.
Polymorphisms due to single base substitutions in the coding region
Two previously described polymorphisms in the TNSALP gene were
also analyzed in the family members (18). The bases of the reported
polymorphic site in exon 7 (at nucleotide 963) and exon 9 (at
nucleotide 1052) were analyzed. The father was heterozygous in these
sites (T/C and A/G, respectively), and the mother was homozygous (T and
A, respectively). All four children were heterozygous, and these
results together with the mutations described above determine the
linkage of nucleotides at all four sites (nucleotide at 963, 1052,
1309, and 1741). T responsible for the D361V mutation was located on
the allele that contained C, G, and T at nucleotides 963, 1052, and
1741, respectively. Genotypes of all members were as follows (Fig. 1
):
father: CGTT, TAAT; mother: TAAT, TAAC; three of the children: CGTT,
TAAC; and the other child: CGTT, TAAT. Each of these four letters is
with first set of letters representing nucleotides at position
963, 1052, 1309, and 1741, respectively.
Expression of the mutated cDNA of the ALP
The activity of the mutated ALP enzymes was measured using the
transient expression system. The COS-7 cells transfected with the
mutated plasmid at nucleotide 1309 (D361V) exhibited low ALP activity,
similar to the COS-7 cells transfected with the mock expression vector
(25.4 ± 4.8% and 30.2 ± 5.6%, respectively). In contrast,
the COS-7 cells transfected with the mutated cDNA at codon 505 (V505A)
exhibited a level 94.2 ± 16.9% of the wild-type ALP control
level (Fig. 2
).
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| Discussion |
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In the family described here, the father and all four children, consisting of a boy and three girls, exhibited premature loss of decidual teeth, low activity of serum ALP, and elevated levels of urinary PEA. In contrast, the mother and her mother had no symptoms related to the disease and exhibited normal serum ALP and urinary PEA levels. These results show that the father and all children were affected with a mild form of hypophosphatasia, consistent with other reported cases of dominant inheritance, whereas the mother was a healthy noncarrier. This suggests that hypophosphatasia is inherited in an autosomal dominant manner in this family.
Analysis of the TNSALP gene in the family revealed that the D361V mutation existed heterozygously in the father and in all of the children, but not in the mother. Another mutation that caused V505A was found in the mother and three of the children, but not in the father and the other child, who were affected with the disease. These results suggest that the D361V, not the V505A, mutation is responsible for the disease.
Consistent with our hypothesis, reconstruction experiments proved that the D361V mutant lost its enzymatic activity, whereas the level of activity in the V505A mutant was comparable with that in the wild-type protein. These results demonstrate that D361V is the cause of dominant inherited hypophosphatasia in this family and that V505A is a polymorphism, although we did not investigate the rate of V505A in the normal population.
To test our hypothesis, COS-7 cells were cotransfected with the expression vector of the mutant and wild-type ALP to analyze the difference between the usual recessive and the dominant traits. It was found that the D361V mutant inhibited the enzymatic activity of wild-type ALP in a dose-dependent manner, i.e. the D361V mutant acted in a dominant negative fashion. These results clearly illustrated the molecular basis of the dominant inheritance of hypophosphatasia. To exclude the possibility that the reduction in the expression of the wild-type ALP was caused by coexpression of D361V mutant, we determined the amount of protein by Western blotting after constructing a fusion protein of ALP with GFP and ALP activity. The results showed that the D361V mutant suppressed wild-type ALP activity as well in this construct, and that the protein level was not affected by coexpression of D361V. As ALP functions through forming dimer or tetramer complexes, it is likely that D361V influenced the activity of wild-type ALP by protein-protein interaction. However, the mechanism by which D361V mutant exerted the dominant negative effect remains to be elucidated. Actually, the D361V mutation was suggested to be a cause of dominant hypophosphatasia (27), but there had been no thorough study performed on it to our knowledge. We confirmed that the D361V mutation is responsible for the dominantly inherited form of hypophosphatasia by showing a dominant negative effect of the D361V mutant. The expression level of the D361V mutant determines the degree of inhibition of the function of wild-type ALP, and this may affect the penetrance of the disease. Our study lays the basis for future investigations into the phenotype-genotype correlation in hypophosphatasia.
In conclusion, we described a family with an autosomal dominant form of hypophosphatasia and the study of the TNSALP gene in all family members. The mutation (D361V) of the TNSALP gene was found to exist heterozygously in affected members. The mutant protein not only loses its own enzymatic activity, but also interferes with the function of wild-type ALP.
| Acknowledgments |
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Received July 13, 1999.
Revised October 18, 1999.
Accepted October 22, 1999.
| References |
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Asp mutation in ALPL
causes the perinatal (lethal) form of hypophosphatasia in Canadian
Mennonites. Genomics. 17:215217.[CrossRef][Medline]
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