Genetic heterogeneity of pseudoxanthoma elasticum: the Chinese signature profile of ABCC6 and ENPP1 mutations.

Pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE), an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by ectopic mineralization, is caused by mutations in the ABCC6 gene. We examined clinically 29 Chinese PXE patients from unrelated families, so far the largest cohort of Asian PXE patients. In a subset of 22 patients, we sequenced ABCC6 and another candidate gene, ENPP1, and conducted pathogenicity analyses for each variant. We identified a total of 17 distinct mutations in ABCC6, 15 of them being, to our knowledge, previously unreported, including 5 frameshift and 10 missense variants. In addition, a missense mutation in combination with a recurrent nonsense mutation in ENPP1 was discovered in a pediatric PXE case. No cases with p.R1141X or del23-29 mutations, common in Caucasian patient populations, were identified. The 10 missense mutations in ABCC6 were expressed in the mouse liver via hydrodynamic tail-vein injections. One mutant protein showed cytoplasmic accumulation indicating abnormal subcellular trafficking, while the other nine mutants showed correct plasma membrane location. These nine mutations were further investigated for their pathogenicity using a recently developed zebrafish mRNA rescue assay. Minimal rescue of the morpholino-induced phenotype was achieved with eight of the nine mutant human ABCC6 mRNAs tested, implying pathogenicity. This study demonstrates that the Chinese PXE population harbors unique ABCC6 mutations. These genetic data have implications for allele-specific therapy currently being developed for PXE

Rapid Screening for Flavone C-Glycosides in the Leaves of Different Species of Bamboo and Simultaneous Quantitation of Four Marker Compounds by HPLC-UV/DAD

A strategy for analyzing flavone C-glucosides in the leaves of different species of bamboo was developed. Firstly, the flavone C-glycosides were extracted from the bamboo leaves (51 species in 17 genera) with methanol and chromatographed on silica gel 60 plates in automatic developing chamber (ADC2), and a qualitative survey using simple derivatization steps with the NP reagent was carried out. The flavone C-glycosides were found in 40 of 51 species of bamboo examined. Secondly, an HPLC method with photodiode array and multiple wavelength detector was optimized and validated for the simultaneous determination of flavone C-glycosides, including isoorientin, isovitexin, orientin, and vitexin in the leaves of three species of bamboo and the flavone C-glycosides were confirmed by LC/MS. The optimized HPLC method proved to be linear in the concentration range tested (0.2–100 μg/mL, r2 ≥ 0.9997), precise (RSD ≤ 1.56%), and accurate (88–106%). The concentration ranges of isoorientin, isovitexin, orientin, and vitexin in three bamboo leaves samples were 1.00–2.78, 0–0.31, 0–0.07, and 0.20–0.68 mg/g, respectively. The proposed method was validated to be simple and reliable and can be a tool for quality control of bamboo leaf extract or its commercial products