B3GALNT2 is a gene associated with congenital muscular dystrophy with brain malformations

Eur J Hum Genet. 2014 May;22(5):707-10. doi: 10.1038/ejhg.2013.223. Epub 2013 Oct 2.

Abstract

Congenital muscular dystrophies associated with brain malformations are a group of disorders frequently associated with aberrant glycosylation of α-dystroglycan. They include disease entities such a Walker-Warburg syndrome, muscle-eye-brain disease and various other clinical phenotypes. Different genes involved in glycosylation of α-dystroglycan are associated with these dystroglycanopathies. We describe a 5-year-old girl with psychomotor retardation, ataxia, spasticity, muscle weakness and increased serum creatine kinase levels. Immunhistochemistry of skeletal muscle revealed reduced glycosylated α-dystroglycan. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain at 3.5 years of age showed increased T2 signal from supratentorial and infratentorial white matter, a hypoplastic pons and subcortical cerebellar cysts. By whole exome sequencing, the patient was identified to be compound heterozygous for a one-base duplication and a missense mutation in the gene B3GALNT2 (β-1,3-N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase 2; B3GalNAc-T2). This patient showed a milder phenotype than previously described patients with mutations in the B3GALNT2 gene.

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biopsy
  • Brain / abnormalities*
  • Brain / pathology
  • Child, Preschool
  • Creatine Kinase / blood
  • DNA Mutational Analysis
  • Female
  • Genetic Association Studies*
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Muscle, Skeletal / pathology
  • Muscular Dystrophies / diagnosis
  • Muscular Dystrophies / genetics*
  • Mutation
  • N-Acetylgalactosaminyltransferases / genetics*
  • Nervous System Malformations / diagnosis
  • Nervous System Malformations / genetics*
  • Pedigree
  • Phenotype
  • Syndrome

Substances

  • B3GALNT2 protein, human
  • N-Acetylgalactosaminyltransferases
  • Creatine Kinase