Nat Genet. 2013 Dec 1. doi: 10.1038/ng.2844. [Epub ahead of print]
EIF2AK4 mutations cause pulmonary veno-occlusive disease, a recessive form of pulmonary hypertension.
Eyries M, Montani D, Girerd B, Perret C, Leroy A, Lonjou C, Chelghoum N, Coulet F, Bonnet D, Dorfmüller P, Fadel E, Sitbon O, Simonneau G, Tregouët DA, Humbert M, Soubrier F.
Unité Mixte de Recherche en Santé (UMR_S 956), Université Pierre and Marie Curie Université Paris 06 (UPMC) and Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Paris, France.
Genetics Department, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Paris, France.
Institute for Cardiometabolism and Nutrition (ICAN), Paris, France.
Abstract
Pulmonary veno-occlusive disease (PVOD) is a rare and devastating cause of pulmonary hypertension that is characterized histologically by widespread fibrous intimal proliferation of septal veins and preseptal venules and is frequently associated with pulmonary capillary dilatation and proliferation. PVOD is categorized into a separate pulmonary arterial hypertension-related group in the current classification of pulmonary hypertension. PVOD presents either sporadically or as familial cases with a seemingly recessive mode of transmission. Using whole-exome sequencing, we detected recessive mutations in EIF2AK4 (also called GCN2) that cosegregated with PVOD in all 13 families studied. We also found biallelic EIF2AK4 mutations in 5 of 20 histologically confirmed sporadic cases of PVOD. All mutations, either in a homozygous or compound-heterozygous state, disrupted the function of the gene. These findings point to EIF2AK4 as the major gene that is linked to PVOD development and contribute toward an understanding of the complex genetic architecture of pulmonary hypertension.
PMID: 24292273