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Publications (117)
Background: Dominant mutations in COL3A1 are known to cause vascular Ehlers–Danlos syndrome (vEDS) by impairing extracellular matrix (ECM) homeostasis. This disruption leads to the fragility of soft connective tissues and a significantly increased risk of life-threatening arterial and organ ruptures. Currently, treatments for vEDS are primarily sym...
Dominant mutations in COL3A1 are known to cause vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (vEDS) by impairing extracellular matrix (ECM) homeostasis. This disruption leads to the fragility of soft connective tissues and a significantly increased risk of life-threatening arterial and organ ruptures. Currently, treatments for vEDS are primarily symptomatic, la...
Diagnosing hypermobile Ehlers‐Danlos syndrome (hEDS) and hypermobility spectrum disorders (HSD), common overlapping multisystemic conditions featuring symptomatic joint hypermobility, is challenging due to lack of established causes and diagnostic tools. Currently, the 2017 diagnostic criteria for hEDS are used, with non‐qualifying cases classified...
Vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (vEDS) is a severe connective tissue disorder caused by dominant mutations in the COL3A1 gene encoding type III collagen (COLLIII). COLLIII is primarily found in blood vessels and hollow organs, and its deficiency leads to soft connective tissues fragility, resulting in life-threatening arterial and organ ruptures. T...
Pathogenic variants in TGFBR1 are a common cause of Loeys-Dietz syndrome (LDS) characterized by life-threatening aortic and arterial disease. Generally, these are missense changes in highly conserved amino acids in the serine–threonine kinase domain. Conversely, nonsense, frameshift, or specific missense changes in the ligand-binding extracellular...
Hypermobile Ehlers–Danlos syndrome (hEDS) and hypermobility spectrum disorders (HSD) are clinically overlapping connective tissue disorders of unknown etiology and without any validated diagnostic biomarker and specific therapies. Herein, we in-depth characterized the cellular phenotype and gene expression profile of hEDS and HSD dermal fibroblasts...
Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) is the most frequent type of EDS and is characterized by generalized joint hypermobility and musculoskeletal manifestations which are associated with chronic pain, and mild skin involvement along with the presence of more than a few comorbid conditions. Despite numerous research efforts, no causative gene(s...
Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS), mainly characterized by generalized joint hypermobility and its complications, minor skin changes, and apparently segregating with an autosomal dominant pattern, is still without a known molecular basis. Hence, its diagnosis is only clinical based on a strict set of criteria defined in the revised EDS noso...
Transforming growth factor beta-activated kinase 1 (TAK1) is a highly conserved kinase protein encoded by MAP3K7, and activated by multiple extracellular stimuli, growth factors and cytokines. Heterozygous variants in MAP3K7 cause the cardiospondylocarpofacial syndrome (CSCFS) which is characterized by short stature, dysmorphic facial features, car...
The 2017 classification of Ehlers‐Danlos syndromes (EDS) identifies three types associated with causative variants in COL1A1/COL1A2 and distinct from osteogenesis imperfecta (OI). Previously, patients have been described with variable features of both disorders, and causative variants in COL1A1/COL1A2; but this phenotype has not been included in th...
Genetic etiologies of chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis (CMC) disrupt human IL-17A/F–dependent immunity at mucosal surfaces, whereas those of connective tissue disorders (CTDs) often impair the TGF-β–dependent homeostasis of connective tissues. The signaling pathways involved are incompletely understood. We report a three-generation family with an...
The Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS) constitute a clinically and genetically heterogeneous group of connective tissue disorders. Tenascin X (TNX) deficiency is a rare type of EDS, defined as classical-like EDS (clEDS), since it phenotypically resembles the classical form of EDS, though lacking atrophic scarring. Although most patients display a well-d...
The Ehlers‒Danlos syndromes (EDS) constitute a heterogenous group of connective tissue disorders characterized by joint hypermobility, skin abnormalities, and vascular fragility. The latest nosology recognizes 13 types caused by pathogenic variants in genes encoding collagens and other molecules involved in collagen processing and extracellular mat...
Transforming growth factor β‐activated kinase 1 (TAK1) mediates multiple biological processes through the nuclear factor κ‐light‐chain‐enhancer of activated B cells (NF‐κB) and the mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways. TAK1 activation is tightly regulated by its binding partners (TABs). In particular, binding with TAB2 is cruc...
Classical Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (cEDS) is a dominant inherited connective tissue disorder mainly caused by mutations in the COL5A1 and COL5A2 genes encoding type V collagen (COLLV), which is a fibrillar COLL widely distributed in a variety of connective tissues. cEDS patients suffer from skin hyperextensibility, abnormal wound healing/atrophic sca...
Top canonical pathways perturbed in cEDS patients’ skin fibroblasts.
(XLSX)
DAVID functional annotation clustering of 368 up-regulated DEGs in cEDS patients’ skin fibroblasts.
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Clinical and molecular findings of the cEDS patients.
(DOCX)
Full list of DEGs identified in cEDS patients’ skin fibroblasts.
(XLSX)
DAVID functional annotation clustering of 180 down-regulated DEGs in cEDS patients’ skin fibroblasts.
(XLSX)
The αvβ3 integrin, an endothelial cells' receptor-binding fibronectin (FN) in the extracellular matrix (ECM) of blood vessels, regulates ECM remodeling during migration, invasion, angiogenesis, wound healing and inflammation, and is also involved in the epithelial mesenchymal transition. In vitro-grown human control fibroblasts organize a fibrillar...
Vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (vEDS) is a dominantly inherited connective tissue disorder caused by mutations in the COL3A1 gene that encodes type III collagen (COLLIII), which is the major expressed collagen in blood vessels and hollow organs. The majority of disease-causing variants in COL3A1 are glycine substitutions and in-frame splice mutati...
DAVID functional annotation clustering of 281 up-regulated DEGs in vEDS patients’ skin fibroblasts.
(XLSX)
DAVID functional annotation clustering of 688 down-regulated DEGs in vEDS patients’ skin fibroblasts.
(XLSX)
Full list of DEGs identified in vEDS patients’ skin fibroblasts.
(XLSX)
Top canonical pathways perturbed in vEDS patients’ skin fibroblasts.
(DOCX)
Summary of the main clinical features of vEDS patients.
(DOCX)
List of primers used for qPCR analyses.
(DOCX)
Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) is a heritable connective tissue disorder with unknown molecular basis mainly characterized by generalized joint hypermobility, joint instability complications and minor skin changes. The phenotypic spectrum is broad and includes multiple associated symptoms shared with chronic inflammatory systemic disease...
GLUT10 belongs to a family of transporters that catalyze the uptake of sugars/polyols by facilitated diffusion. Loss-of-function mutations in the SLC2A10 gene encoding GLUT10 are responsible for arterial tortuosity syndrome (ATS). Since subcellular distribution of the transporter is dubious, we aimed to clarify the localization of GLUT10. In silico...
Classical Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (cEDS) is characterized by marked cutaneous involvement that is defined by many criteria of the Villefranche nosology and the 2017 revision. However, the diagnostic flow-chart that prompts molecular testing is still based on experts' opinion rather than systematic published data. Here we report on 62 molecularly cha...
Itch is thought to represent the peculiar response to stimuli conveyed by somatosensory pathways shared with pain through the activation of specific neurons and receptors. It can occur in association with dermatological, systemic and neurological diseases, or be the side effect of certain drugs. However, some patients suffer from chronic idiopathic...
Joint hypermobility syndrome/Ehlers–Danlos syndrome hypermobility type (JHS/EDS-HT), is likely the most common systemic heritable connective tissue disorder, and is mostly recognized by generalized joint hypermobility, joint instability complications, minor skin changes and a wide range of satellite features. JHS/EDS-HT is considered an autosomal d...
Volcano plot and hierarchical clustering.
(A) Volcano plot depicts all statistically significant DEGs identified in JHS/EDS-HT cells. The fold-change of DEGs on the x-axis vs the statistical significance (p-value <0.05, FDR ≤0.3) on the y-axis is shown; up-regulated genes are reported in red, and down-regulated genes are in blue. (B) Hierarchical c...
Validation of differential expressed miRNAs by qPCR.
The expression levels of a selection of up-regulated and down-regulated miRNAs were evaluated using RNU66 as an internal normalization transcript. The bars represent the mean ratio of the target miRNA expression in patients’ fibroblasts compared with five unrelated healthy individuals. qPCR was p...
DAVID clusters of up-regulated genes in JHS/EDS-HT fibroblasts.
(XLS)
DAVID clusters of down-regulated genes in JHS/EDS-HT fibroblasts.
(XLS)
List of differentially expressed miRNAs in JHS/EDS-HT skin fibroblasts.
(XLS)
miRNA-mRNA interaction.
(DOC)
Top canonical pathways perturbed in JHS/EDS-HT skin fibroblasts.
(DOCX)
List of differentially expressed genes in JHS/EDS-HT skin fibroblasts.
(XLSX)
Loss-of-function mutations in the gene encoding GLUT10 are responsible for arterial tortuosity syndrome (ATS), a rare connective tissue disorder. In the present study GLUT10 mediated dehydroascorbic acid (DAA) transport was investigated, supposing its involvement in the pathomechanism. GLUT10 protein produced by in vitro translation and incorporate...
Background:
Brittle cornea syndrome (BCS) is a rare, generalized connective tissue disorder associated with extreme corneal thinning and a high risk of corneal rupture. Recessive mutations in transcription factors ZNF469 and PRDM5 cause BCS. Both transcription factors are suggested to act on a common pathway regulating extracellular matrix genes,...
Arterial tortuosity syndrome (ATS) is an autosomal recessive connective tissue disorder caused by loss-of-function mutations in SLC2A10, which encodes facilitative glucose transporter 10 (GLUT10). The role of GLUT10 in ATS pathogenesis remains an enigma, and the transported metabolite(s), i.e., glucose and/or dehydroascorbic acid, have not been cle...
The musculocontractural type of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (MC-EDS) has been recently recognized as a clinical entity. MC-EDS represents a differential diagnosis within the congenital neuromuscular and connective tissue disorders spectrum. Thirty-one and three patients have been reported with MC-EDS so far with bi-allelic mutations identified in CHST14...
Mutations in B3GALT6, encoding the galactosyltransferase II (GalT-II) involved in the synthesis of the glycosaminoglycan (GAG) linkage region of proteoglycans (PGs), have recently been associated with a spectrum of connective tissue disorders, including spondyloepimetaphyseal dysplasia with joint laxity type 1 (SEMDJL1) and Ehlers–Danlos-like syndr...
Mutation screening. In the probands, sequence analysis of B3GALT6 showed compound heterozygosity for two novel mutations: the c.227del one-basepair deletion (p.Ile76Thrfs*202) was inherited from the mother (left panel), and the c.766C > T transition (p.Arg256Trp) was inherited from the father (right panel). For cDNA numbering, + 1 corresponds to th...
Scatter plot, hierarchical clustering, and GO analysis of the DEGs.A: The volcano plot depicts all statistically significant DEGs identified in GalT-II-deficient cells. The fold-change of DEGs on the x-axis versus the statistical significance (P-value < 0.05) on the y-axis is shown; the up-regulated genes are reported in red, and the down-regulated...
DEGs identified in GalT-II-deficient fibroblasts.
DAVID clusters obtained with the 162 down-regulated genes.
DAVID clusters obtained with the 172 up-regulated genes.
Overview of currently known B3GALT6 mutations.
Background
Classic Ehlers–Danlos syndrome (cEDS) is a rare autosomal dominant connective tissue disorder that is primarily characterized by skin hyperextensibility, abnormal wound healing/atrophic scars, and joint hypermobility. A recent study demonstrated that more than 90% of patients who satisfy all of these major criteria harbor a type V collag...
Alternative splicing of EDA fibronectin (FN) region is a cell type- and development-regulated mechanism controlled by pathological processes, growth factors and extracellular matrix (ECM). Classic and vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (cEDS and vEDS) are connective tissue disorders caused by COL5A1/COL5A2 and COL3A1 gene mutations, leading to an in v...
Arterial tortuosity syndrome (ATS) is an autosomal recessive connective tissue disorder, mainly characterized by tortuosity and elongation of the large- and medium-sized arteries with predisposition to stenoses and aneurysms. ATS is caused by mutations in the SLC2A10 gene, encoding for the facilitative glucose transporter 10 (GLUT10) and is describ...
We report on an autosomal-recessive variant of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) characterized by severe muscle hypotonia at birth, progressive scoliosis, joint hypermobility, hyperelastic skin, myopathy, sensorineural hearing impairment, and normal pyridinoline excretion in urine. Clinically, the disorder shares many features with the kyphoscoliotic ty...
Extreme corneal fragility and thinning, which have a high risk of catastrophic spontaneous rupture, are the cardinal features of brittle cornea syndrome (BCS), an autosomal-recessive generalized connective tissue disorder. Enucleation is frequently the only management option for this condition, resulting in blindness and psychosocial distress. Even...
The SLC2A10 gene located on chromosome 20q13.1 encodes the facilitative glucose transporter 10 (GLUT10), a class III member of the SLC2A facilitative glucose transporter family. Mutations in the human SLC2A10 gene cause arterial tortuosity syndrome (ATS), a rare autosomal recessive connective tissue disorder. In this work, we report the characteriz...
Loeys-Dietz syndrome (LDS) is a rare autosomal dominant disorder showing the involvement of cutaneous, cardiovascular, craniofacial, and skeletal systems. In particular, LDS patients show arterial tortuosity with widespread vascular aneurysm and dissection, and have a high risk of aortic dissection or rupture at an early age and at aortic diameters...
Mutations in the genes encoding for type V collagen have been found in the classical type of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS); the most common mutations lead to a non-functional COL5A1 allele. We characterized three skin fibroblast strains derived from patients affected by classical EDS caused by COL5A1 haploinsufficiency. As a typical clinical hallmar...
Extracellular matrix (ECM) binding to integrin receptors regulates cell cycle progression and survival. In adherent cells, ECM disassembly induces anoikis, the apoptotic pathway switched on by loss of adhesion. ECM-deficient Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) fibroblasts, to adhere to rare fibronectin (FN) fibrils, and to proliferate, only organize, as F...
We describe a premature newborn child with left renal agenesis, right low functional kidney, altered chemical-clinical parameters, neutropenia, recurrent pulmonary infections, long bone diaphysis broadening, growth and developmental delay. Postnatal cytogenetic analysis revealed a 46,XY,t(2;7)(p13;p12) de-novo karyotype. The chromosome breakpoints...
Impaired wound healing is a typical clinical hallmark of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS). Mutated fibroblasts from EDS patients, which deposit an abnormal extracellular matrix, showed defective migration resulting in a marked delay in wound repair. The migratory capability remarkably improved in the presence of exogenous type V collagen.
We report the effect of the stable expression of a 13 amino acid human fibronectin (FN) peptide (FN13) on the organization of the FN extracellular matrix (ECM) and of FN integrin receptors (FNRs), in relationship with the inhibition of cellular invasion, in three FN-ECM defective human tumor-derived cell lines: SK-Hep1C3, hepatoma, ACN, neuroblasto...