Abstract
Steroid 21-hydroxylase deficiency is caused by inactivating mutations in the CYP21A2 gene. This paper reports on the mutation spectrum and the genotype-phenotype correlation
of 21-hydroxylase deficiency. 72 unrelated patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia
(CAH) were included. Molecular analysis of CYP21A2 was performed, via the multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) analysis
and sequence-specific differenzial PCR amplification of the CYP21A2 and CYP21A1P genes, using 4 pair-wise sequence-specific primers, followed by sequencing of the
entire CYP21A2 gene. Large gene deletions were identified in 45 (31.3%) of the 144 unrelated CAH
alleles, whereas the most frequent point mutations were intron 2 splice mutations
(c.293-13A>G) (41/144, 28.5%). The MLPA analysis successfully identified 23 of 72
patients (31.9%) with single copy deletion in CYP21A2. This paper describes a rapid and accurate method for the molecular diagnosis of
21-hydroxylase deficiency, which relies on the identification of point mutations and
structural rearrangements within the CYP21A2 gene.
Key words
Congenital adrenal hyperplasia -
CYP21A2
- Steroid 21-hydroxylase deficiency