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Published online March 2, 2007
Diabetes Care 30:1613-1614, 2007
DOI: 10.2337/dc06-2618
© 2007 by the American Diabetes Association
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Pathophysiology/Complications
Brief Report

Digenic Inheritance of Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor-1{alpha} and -1ß With Maturity-Onset Diabetes of the Young, Polycystic Thyroid, and Urogenital Malformations

Beate Karges, MD1, Carsten Bergmann, MD2, Katrina Scholl, MD1, Eberhard Heinze, MD1, Franz Maximilian Rasche, MD3, Klaus Zerres, MD2, Klaus-Michael Debatin, MD1, Martin Wabitsch, MD1 and Wolfram Karges, MD4

1 Department of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes, University Children's Hospital, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany
2 Institute for Human Genetics, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
3 Department of Nephrology, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany
4 Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Beate Karges, MD, Department of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes, University Children's Hospital, University of Ulm, Eythstrasse 24, D-89075 Ulm, Germany. E-mail: beate.karges{at}uniklinik-ulm.de

Abbreviations: HNF, hepatocyte nuclear factor • MODY, maturity-onset diabetes of the young


    INTRODUCTION
 TOP
 INTRODUCTION
 HISTORY AND EXAMINATION--
 INVESTIGATION--
 CONCLUSIONS--
 References
 
Heterozygous mutations of the POU A/homeodomain transcription factors hepatocyte nuclear factor (HNF)-1{alpha} and -1ß cause maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) in humans (1). HNF-1{alpha} and -1ß act in a complex network of transcription factors regulating tissue-specific gene expression in the pancreas and other epithelial organs. Patients with mutations of HNF-1ß (MODY5) are characterized by urogenital malformations, while extrapancreatic manifestations in patients with diabetes and HNF-1{alpha} mutations (MODY3) are not well known (2).


    HISTORY AND EXAMINATION—
 TOP
 INTRODUCTION
 HISTORY AND EXAMINATION--
 INVESTIGATION--
 CONCLUSIONS--
 References
 
After an occasional blood glucose reading of 13.4 mmo/l, the diagnosis of diabetes was established in a 13-year-old girl. She was asymptomatic except for mild chronic lower abdominal discomfort. Her fasting glucose was 9.3 mmol/l, A1C was 8.5% (normal 4.2–6.1), and urine ketones were negative. After brief insulin treatment, she received 0.5 mg/day glimepiride, with a current A1C of 5.6%.

Her father (Fig. 1), diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 27 years, has received insulin since the age of 38 years. The paternal grandmother had diabetes treated with glibenclamide until she died 20 years ago, aged 62 years. Two asymptomatic sisters of the index patient were diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 14 years and 19 years. Their fasting serum glucose was 7.3 and 6.8 mmol/l, respectively, and A1C was 6.0 and 6.1%. Two hours after a 75-g oral glucose challenge, their glucose levels were 10.1 and 13.1 mmol/l, respectively.


Figure 1
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Figure 1— Pedigree of family with MODY, polycystic thyroid, and urogenital malformations. The clinical phenotype (filled symbols) is shown in relation to the HNF-1{alpha} (upper row) and HNF-1ß allelic status (lower row) of each individual. n.a., not available.

 
Fasting C-peptide was 299.7 pmol/l in the index patient, and 599.4 and 566.1 pmol/l in her sisters; all had normal insulin sensitivity (homeostasis model assessment 2.0, 1.7, and 1.8, respectively) and normal BMI (<25 kg/m2). Liver, kidney, and thyroid function tests including serum thyrotropin, free T4 and T3, creatinine, and other standard laboratory parameters were normal in all sisters, and serum islet cell autoantibodies and GAD65 antibodies were negative.


    INVESTIGATION—
 TOP
 INTRODUCTION
 HISTORY AND EXAMINATION--
 INVESTIGATION--
 CONCLUSIONS--
 References
 
ß-Cell function was assessed after intravenous challenge with glucose (0.5 g/kg bolus) and L-arginine (0.7g/min for 30 min). In the index patient and her sisters, insulin secretion was significantly impaired after intravenous glucose (maximum serum insulin 223.8, 124.1, and 145.6 pmol/l, respectively). In contrast, there was a sustained insulin release after arginine infusion (maximum serum insulin 543.1, 363.0, and 655.0 pmol/l, respectively).

Abdominal ultrasound in the index patient showed agenesis of the right kidney and a didelphic uterus with hypoplastic right uterine horn and hemiatresia of the cervix, which was confirmed by hysteroscopy. In both of her sisters, no abnormalities of the urogenital system were identified by ultrasound. In the index patient and the younger sister, polycystic changes in both thyroid lobes with >50 cysts up to 4 mm in size were detected by high-resolution (12 MHz) ultrasound, and single thyroid cysts were identified in the father and the older sister. No cystic or other lesions in the liver were identified in any individual.

HNF-1ß sequence analysis in the index patient revealed a heterozygous genomic missense variant (c.1006C>G) in exon 4, resulting in the substitution of a highly conserved residue (p.His336Asp) in the protein's transactivation domain. This novel variant was detected in 1 of 400 chromosomes in healthy individuals by denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography. Sequencing identified HNF-1ß c.1006C>G in the younger sister and the father but not in the older diabetic sister. Thus, this mutation could not exclusively account for the diabetes phenotype in this family.

We next analyzed HNF-1{alpha} and identified a heterozygous genomic mutation (c.526 + 1delGTAA) in the canonic splice site of intron 2 in all diabetic individuals but not in unaffected family members (Fig. 1). This novel mutation is predicted to result in aberrant HNF-1{alpha} splicing (3), with the introduction of a premature termination codon at amino acid position 194 and deletion of the POU A and transactivation domains.

To rule out further modifying gene effects, additional candidate genes putatively involved in the HNF transcriptional network were sequenced. In the promoter of HNF-6, a sequential heterozygous single nucleotide polymorphism (c.1-400A>C, c.1-390C>A, and c.1-385G>A) was identified in all diabetic patients but also in the unaffected mother. No sequence variation was detected in the index patient's genomic DNA in the coding regions of HNF-4{alpha}, insulin promoter factor 1/pancreatic duodenal homeobox-1, NeuroD (causing MODY 1, 4, and 6, respectively), nor in HNF-6, HNF-3ß, and chicken ovalbumin upstream promoter transcription factors I and II.


    CONCLUSIONS—
 TOP
 INTRODUCTION
 HISTORY AND EXAMINATION--
 INVESTIGATION--
 CONCLUSIONS--
 References
 
We have identified a novel heterozygous HNF-1{alpha} splice site mutation that segregates with diabetes and impaired glucose-dependent insulin secretion, typical of MODY3 (4). In addition, polycystic thyroid, renal, and genital abnormalities were found to extend the clinical phenotype of MODY in this kindred. In a recent report, renal agenesis has been described in two families with HNF-1{alpha} mutations, including a patient with a different HNF-1{alpha} splice site variant and a bicornute uterus (5). The association of HNF-1{alpha} mutants with a polycystic thyroid phenotype, however, has not been observed thus far. Considering that HNF-1{alpha} mutations are the most common cause of MODY, extrapancreatic manifestations seem overall rare in HNF-1{alpha} mutation carriers.

In several, but not all, diabetic patients in these kindred, a second mutation was identified in HNF-1ß, leading to a nonconservative amino acid substitution in the highly conserved region of the transactivation domain. This molecular feature and the low allelic frequency suggest that c.1006C>G is indeed a pathogenic HNF-1ß variant. Strikingly, urogenital and polycystic thyroid changes but not metabolic characteristics were associated with the mutant HNF-1ß allele, while MODY segregated with the HNF-1{alpha} variant.

In polarized epithelial cells, HNF-1{alpha} and -1ß cooperate in a network of transcriptional regulators including HNF-4{alpha} and -3ß, and both HNF-1{alpha} and -ß homo- and heterodimerize for DNA binding via their NH2-terminal dimerization domains (6). It is conceivable that the extended MODY phenotype observed in these kindred may result from the digenic inactivation of HNF-1{alpha} and -1ß. In the kidney, inactivation of HNF-1ß inhibits the expression of the polycystic kidney disease gene Pkhd1 (7), and distinct functional characteristics of HNF-1ß mutants lead to a spectrum of kidney malformations including polycystic phenotypes (8). HNF-1{alpha} and -1ß interact with HNF-3ß, a forkhead transcription factor expressed in early thyroid organogenesis and in the adult thyroid (9). The putative role of HNF-1 transcription factors in thyroid disease involving differential transactivation of HNF-3ß or other target genes, however, must await experimental confirmation.


    Footnotes
 
Published ahead of print at http://care.diabetesjournals.org on 2 March 2007. DOI: 10.2337/dc06-2618.

A table elsewhere in this issue shows conventional and Système International (SI) units and conversion factors for many substances.

The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

Received for publication December 28, 2006. Accepted for publication February 19, 2007.


    References
 TOP
 INTRODUCTION
 HISTORY AND EXAMINATION--
 INVESTIGATION--
 CONCLUSIONS--
 References
 

  1. Fajans SS, Bell GI, Polonsky KS: Molecular mechanisms and clinical pathophysiology of maturity-onset diabetes of the young. N Engl J Med 345:971–980, 2001[Free Full Text]
  2. Bellanne-Chantelot C, Chauveau D, Gautier JF, Dubois LaForgue D, Clauin S, Beaufils S, Wilhelm JM, Boitard C, Noel LH, Velho G, Timsit J: Clinical spectrum associated with hepatocyte nuclear factor-1beta mutations. Ann Intern Med 140:510–517, 2004[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  3. Wang M, Marin A: Characterization and prediction of alternative splice sites. Gene 366:219–227, 2006[Medline]
  4. Pearson ER, Badmand MK, Lockwood CR, Clark PM, Ellard S, Bingham C, Hattersley AT: Contrasting diabetes phenotypes associated with hepatocyte nuclear factor -1{alpha} and -1ß mutations. Diabetes Care 27:1102–1107, 2004[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  5. Malecki MT, Skupien J, Gorczynska-Kosiorz S, Klupa T, Nazim J, Moczulski DK, Sieradzki J: Renal malformations may be linked to mutations in the hepatocyte nuclear factor-1 alpha (MODY3) gene. Diabetes Care 28:2774–2776, 2005[Free Full Text]
  6. Ryffel GU: Mutations of the human genes encoding the transcription factors of the hepatocyte nuclear factor (HNF)1 and HNF4 families: functional and pathological consequences. J Mol Endo 27:11–29, 2001[Abstract]
  7. Hiesberger T, Bai Y, Shao X, McNally BT, Sinclair AM, Tian X, Somlo S, Igarashi P: Mutation of hepatocyte nuclear factor-1beta inhibits Pkhd1 gene expression and produces renal cysts in mice. J Clin Invest 113:814–825, 2004[Medline]
  8. Bohn S, Thomas HE, Turan G, Ellard S, Bingham C, Hattersley AT, Ryffel GU: Distinct molecular and morphogenetic properties of mutations in the human HNF1beta gene that lead to defective kidney development. J Am Soc Nephrol 14:2033–2041, 2003[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  9. de Felice M, di Lauro R: Thyroid development and its disorders: genetics and molecular mechanisms. Endocrine Reviews 25:722–746, 2004[Abstract/Free Full Text]

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