title: Varied manifestations of persistent hyperplastic primary vitreous with graded somatic mosaic deletion of a single gene.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Persistent hyperplastic primary vitreous (PHPV) represents a developmental eye disease known to have diverse manifestations ranging from a trivial remnant of hyaloid vessels to a dense fibrovascular mass causing lens opacity and retinal detachment. PHPV can be modeled in mice lacking individual genes, but certain features of such models differ from the clinical realm. For example, mice lacking the Arf gene have uniformly severe disease with consistent autosomal recessive disease penetrance. We tested whether the graded somatic loss of Arf in a subset of cells in chimeric mice mimics the range of disease in a non-heritable manner.
  
  
  METHODS
  Wild type ↔ Arf(-/-) mouse chimeras were generated by morulae fusion, and when the mice were 10 weeks old, fundoscopic, slit-lamp, and histological evaluations were performed. The relative fraction of cells of the Arf(-/-) lineage was assessed with visual, molecular genetic, and histological analysis. Objective quantification of various aspects of the phenotype was correlated with the genotype.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sixteen chimeras were generated and shown to have low, medium, and high contributions of Arf(-/-) cells to tail DNA, the cornea, and the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), with excellent correlation between chimerism in the tail DNA and the RPE. Phenotypic differences (coat color and severity of eye disease) were evident, objectively quantified, and found to correlate with the contribution of Arf(-/-) cells to the RPE and tail-derived DNA, but not the cornea.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Generating animals composed of different numbers of Arf(-/-) cells mimicked the range of disease severity observed in patients with PHPV. This establishes the potential for full manifestations of PHPV to be caused by somatic mutations of a single gene during development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology/Oncology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX.
authors.forename: Michelle N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Mary-Sinclair
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN ; Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN.
authors.forename: Xiaofei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Genetics, Centre of Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, CFRI, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Douglas J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Swanson
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology/Oncology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX.
authors.forename: Caroline Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Sung
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics and Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI.
authors.forename: Eneida A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Mendonca
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Studies, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Kristen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wroblewski
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Shannon H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Baumer
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Genetics, Centre of Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, CFRI, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Goldowitz
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN ; Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN.
authors.forename: Monica M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Jablonski
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology/Oncology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX.
authors.forename: Stephen X
authors.initials: SX
authors.lastname: Skapek
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019070:Cell Lineage; D002678:Chimera; D050764:Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p19 / Q000172:deficiency / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D004247:DNA / Q000378:metabolism; D017353:Gene Deletion; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009030:Mosaicism; D009887:Ophthalmoscopy; D054514:Persistent Hyperplastic Primary Vitreous / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology*; D010641:Phenotype; D010858:Pigmentation; D055213:Retinal Pigment Epithelium / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D050764:Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p19; D004247:DNA