EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN GENETICS, cilt.20, sa.6, ss.639-644, 2012 (SCI-Expanded)
Indian hedgehog (Ihh) signaling is a major determinant of various processes during embryonic development and has a pivotal
role in embryonic skeletal development. A specific spatial and temporal expression of Ihh within the developing limb buds is
essential for accurate digit outgrowth and correct digit number. Although missense mutations in
IHH cause brachydactyly type
A1, small tandem duplications involving the
IHH locus have recently been described in patients with mild syndactyly and
craniosynostosis. In contrast, a
B600-kb deletion 5¢ of IHH in the doublefoot mouse mutant (Dbf) leads to severe polydactyly
without craniosynostosis, but with craniofacial dysmorphism. We now present a patient resembling acrocallosal syndrome (ACS)
with extensive polysyndactyly of the hands and feet, craniofacial abnormalities including macrocephaly, agenesis of the corpus
callosum, dysplastic and low-set ears, severe hypertelorism and profound psychomotor delay. Single-nucleotide polymorphism
(SNP) array copy number analysis identified a
B900-kb duplication of the IHH locus, which was confirmed by an independent
quantitative method. A fetus from a second pregnancy of the mother by a different spouse showed similar craniofacial and limb
malformations and the same duplication of the
IHH-locus. We defined the exact breakpoints and showed that the duplications
are identical tandem duplications in both sibs. No copy number changes were observed in the healthy mother. To our knowledge,
this is the first report of a human phenotype similar to the
Dbf mutant and strikingly overlapping with ACS that is caused by a
copy number variation involving the
IHH locus on chromosome 2q35.