title: Mutations of calpain 3 gene in patients with sporadic limb-girdle muscular dystrophy in Japan.
abstract: Mutations of the calpain 3 gene, an intracellular calcium-activated neutral protease, is one of the causes of limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD). We examined 14 Japanese patients with sporadic LGMD for calpain 3 mutations, and found four mutations in five patients. Three (R461C, D707G and R147P) were novel missense mutations, and one was a splice-site mutation (801+1g-->a) resulting in skipping of exons 4 and 5. Of the five patients, three patients with homozygous missense mutations showed later onset and slower progression than the other two patients with an exon skipping or mRNA loss of unknown cause. It would appear that the occurrence of calpain 3 gene mutations in sporadic LGMD in Japan may be quite high since all five patients with mutations in this gene were among the 14 patients without apparent family history, an incidence of 36%. These findings also suggest that calpain 3 deficiency occurs in both sporadic and familial LGMD and that direct analysis of the calpain 3 gene may be useful in the definitive diagnosis not only of the 15q-linked familial but also of sporadic cases of LGMD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Center Hospital for Mental, Nervous and Muscular Disorders, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry (NCNP), Kodaira, Tokyo, Japan. minami@ncnp.go.jp
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Minami
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nishino
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ikezoe
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Goto
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nonaka
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000483:Alleles; D017398:Alternative Splicing; D019943:Amino Acid Substitution / Q000235:genetics; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002154:Calpain / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics*; D002648:Child; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D016189:Dystrophin / Q000096:biosynthesis; D005091:Exons / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007527:Isoenzymes / Q000235:genetics; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009124:Muscle Proteins; D009136:Muscular Dystrophies / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D020125:Mutation, Missense; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D016189:Dystrophin; D007527:Isoenzymes; D009124:Muscle Proteins; D010446:Peptide Fragments; C105884:CAPN3 protein, human; D002154:Calpain