Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to H van den Berghe.
Two new cases of ring chromosome 15 are reported. A review of the nine cases described in the literature shows that ring chromosomes 15 are associated with a rather uniform phenotype characterized by slight to moderate mental retardation, marked pre- and postnatal growth failure, triangular face, and short hands and feet.
The 18q- syndrome is described in a mother and her daughter. In both of them an identical, apparently balanced 18q-/14p+ translocation was found (Karyotype: 46,XX,t(14;18)(p11;q21), suggesting that chromosomal material was lost in the process of translocation. The segment deleted and responsible for the 18q- phenotype must be located in or near band 18q21, in which the break is assumed to have occurred.
Because malathion is a widely used organophosphorous insecticide, the effects of non-toxic concentrations (2.5--40 micrograms/ml) on sister-chromatid exchange (SCE) frequencies were determined. Human fetal fibroblasts were exposed once or twice to malathion, with 20 h between exposures. A single exposure to a concentration of 40 micrograms/ml resulted in a highly significant increase in the number of SCEs. After a double exposure, a concentration of 20 micrograms/ml induced an even greater increase in SCE frequencies. Comparison of Sce frequencies after single and double exposures indicated a cumulative effect; the number of exchanges at concentrations of 5 micrograms/ml or higher was significantly greater after the double exposure. An analysis of SCEs by chromosome group showed that exchanges were distributed approximately according to chromosome length.
Retrospective follow-up studies on the impact of genetic conseling, published since 1970, are reviewed in the present paper. Particular attention has been paid to evaluation of understanding of genetic information, planning of later pregnancies and real changes in family composition. A rather wide divergence was found with regard to these three parameters, probably more related to the design of the studies than to a divergence in counselees' understanding and decisions, emphasizing that more, and especially more methodologically sound studies are necessary to evaluate the impact of genetic counseling.
The most pertinent data of the 32 cases of reciprocal autosomal translocations detected in the laboratory since the initiation of the banding-techniques are summarized. One third of these balanced translocations were detected in patients presenting with mental handicap and/or malformative symptoms.
A paracentric inversion of the short arm of chromosome number 3 is reported in three generations of a family. The index patient presented with slight psychomotor retardation. The literature on this subject is briefly reviewed.
A two years-old, severely mentally retarded male is reported with 22q trisomy. After the recent confirmation of the localisation of arylsulfatase-A (ARSA) on chromosome 22, the elevated activity of this enzyme (about 1,5 times the normal values) in the present patient may be another example of a gene dosage effect in autosomal imbalance.
A 10-year-old girl with partial deletion of the short arm of chromosome 9 is reported; karyotype: 46,XX,del(9)(p22). This syndrome results in a distinctive craniofacial dysmorphism with trigonocephaly and contrasting midfacial hypoplasia. Partial monosomy 9p was the result of a paternal de novo germinal deletion in this case.
This paper describes a case of partial trisomy of almost the entire long arm of chromosome 18 in a newborn with classic trisomy-18 phenotype, resulting from a de novo unbalanced 181/21p translocation: karyotype: 46,XX,-21,t(18;21)(18qter leads to 18q11 ::21p12 leads to 21qter). A review of the other reported cases of partial trisomy 18 suggests that a critical segment in chromosome 18, corresponding to bands q11-q12, might be responsible for most of the signs of trisomy 18, including failure to thrive and early death.
A male newborn with a ring 10 chromosome is described. The distal part of the long arm of chromosome 10, deleted during ring formation (10q25), is translocated to the short arm of chromosome 19.
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In this report a description is given of the Aarskog syndrome in six males belonging to three different families. Partial expression of the syndrome was confirmed in two of the three examined obligate female heterozygotes, who had short stature, small hands and feet, short neck, and a round face with widow's peak and, in one of them, ptosis of the eyelids.
In this paper we describe a previously unreported association of ulnar defect and lobster-claw deformity of the feet, occurring in four males belonging to two generations of the same family. Minor expression of the same ulnar reduction defect in female relatives suggests X-linked recessive inheritance, but an autosomal dominant with irregular expression cannot be excluded.
Cultured amniotic-fluid cells from a fetus at risk for homozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia (F.H.) almost completely lacked cell-surface receptors for plasma low-density lipoprotein (L.D.L.), as evidenced by direct measurement of binding, uptake, and degradation of 125I-L.D.L. Functional consequences of L.D.L. binding to the receptor--i.e., suppression of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase and stimulation of cholesterol esterification--were proportionately reduced when compared with results in cultured amniotic cells from two control fetuses. On the basis of these findings, homozygous F.H. was diagnosed and the pregnancy was terminated at the 20th week. The diagnosis of homozygous F.H. was confirmed by a serum-cholesterol of the aborted fetus of 279 mg/dl, a value 9 times the mean of four control fetuses of similar gestational age. More than 80% of the serum-cholesterol of the affected fetus was contained within L.D.L. Prenatal diagnosis of homozygous F.H. now seems practical; moreover, the finding of a raised serum-L.D.L. in the affected fetus indicates that the L.D.L. receptor is normally functional as early as the 20th week of fetal life.
Quantitative studies on the adhesive properties of transformed cells have yielded inconclusive and sometimes contradictory results. The present investigation has examined adhesive interactions between normal human fibroblasts, established as well as virus-transformed animal cell lines, and human tumour-derived cell lines by the cell-cell layer binding assay. The results of these investigations indicate that adhesive selectivity can be observed between normal human fibroblasts and 2 human tumour-derived cell lines, providing an in vitro system to study cell surface components involved in cellular interactions between normal and malignant cells. In addition it is demonstrated that cell layers of transformed cells form a poorly adhesive substratum for both trypsinized normal and transformed cells. Furthermore, it is confirmed that the adhesive properties of transformed cells, including adhesive selectivity, are affected by the dissociation procedure (trypsin or EDTA). In view of the observations made by other investigators, the present results suggest that transformed cells display adhesive properties which can be quantitatively and reproducibly measured but which are modulated by the dissociation procedure as well as by the configuration in which the cells are at the time of the assay.
A 15-month-old male child with the Greig polysyndactyly-craniofacial dysmorphism syndrome is presented and the relevant literature is reviewed.
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A possibly new mental retardation syndrome is described in a large family. The major features of the syndrome are: short statue, craniofacial dysmorphism and dento-skeletal abnormalities. The mode of inheritance of this syndrome appears to be autosomal dominant with a variable degree of expressivity. The possible similarity to another autosomally dominant inherited mental retardation syndrome, "the K.B.G. syndrome" as described by Hermann et al. (1975), is discussed.