title: [Clinical and molecular analysis of two Chinese siblings with Cockayne syndrome].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Cockayne syndrome is a rare disease and difficult to be recognized. This study aimed to expand the knowledge of the clinical and molecular characteristics of the children with Cockayne syndrome (CS).
  
  
  METHODS
  Clinical data of two siblings with classic CS of Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center from July 2013 to November 2014 were obtained and analyzed. The whole DNA of peripheral blood was collected from two CS siblings and their parents. Amplification of all exons and adjacent introns for ERCC6 gene was conducted using PCR, and measurement of reaction product was performed to find mutation sites by two-way sequencing.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two affected siblings were males, and came from unconsanguineous parents, 7 years and 5 months old and 4 years and 8 months old, respectively. They were in treatment because of developmental and mental retardation for years. When they were younger than one year of age, their heights and weight were within normal limits. However, poor growth of height and weight and psychomotor retardation appeared after one and a half years of age, as well as skin and eye sensitivity to sunshine, hearing impairment, optic nerve atrophy, microcephaly, and deep-set eyes. The proband's height was 90.8 cm, and weight 9.1 kg, head circumference 41 cm, and chest circumference 44 cm when he was taken to hospital. The elder brother of the proband had a height of 92 cm, weight 11.2 kg, head circumference 41 cm, and chest circumference 44 cm when he was taken to hospital. When the proband was four and a half years old, ventricular enlargement, hypomyelination, and brain atrophy were detected for his elder brother at 7 years of age by cranial MRI. MRS imaging indicated that damages occurred at the left and right sides of dorsal thalamus, lobus insularis, along with the left half circle of central neurons. Symmetrical calcification on bilateral basal ganglia was found on the brain CT scan. Pathogenic compound heterozygous c. 1357C > T (p.Arg453Ter) and c. 1607T > G (p.Leu536Trp) mutations of ERCC6 gene were identified in the two siblings which were separately inherited from their unaffected parents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CS children are usually normal at birth, however, they have severe clinical characteristics such as poor growth, psychomotor retardation, cerebral injury, microcephalus, deep-set eyes, and skin sensitivity to sunshine. ERCC6 gene mutation usually occurs, and it is easy to misdiagnose CS as cerebral palsy, primary microcephaly, and so on.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics and Endocrinology, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 510623, China.
authors.forename: Zhizi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Moling
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Hongsheng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yanna
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Huiying
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sheng
authors.forename: Xiuzhen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Duan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yonglan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D044466:Asian People; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003057:Cockayne Syndrome / Q000235:genetics*; D004265:DNA Helicases / Q000235:genetics*; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D045643:DNA Repair Enzymes / Q000235:genetics*; D005091:Exons; D006579:Heterozygote; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009154:Mutation; D000075223:Poly-ADP-Ribose Binding Proteins; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D035781:Siblings
chemical_list: D000075223:Poly-ADP-Ribose Binding Proteins; D004265:DNA Helicases; C078673:ERCC6 protein, human; D045643:DNA Repair Enzymes