Carrier Frequency and Incidence of Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome in African Americans

RSH/Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome (SLOS) is a multiple congenital anomaly/mental retardation syndrome caused by inborn error of cholesterol metabolism (Tint et al. 1994; Opitz 1999; Kelley 2000). Recent studies have shown SLOS to be one of the most common inherited metabolic defects in the Caucasian population. SLOS is believed to be rare in people of Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and Korean origin as well as in the African American and African Black population (Tsukahara et al. 1998; Yu et al 2000a; Witsch-Baumgartner et al. 2000; Witsch-Baumgartner et al. 2001, Battaile et al. 2001). The frequency spectra of DHCR7 mutations have been established for American Caucasians (Yu et al. 2000b, Battaile et al. 2001), mixed American Caucasian collection of patients (Witsch-Baumgartner et al 2000), for European ethnic groups from Poland, German/Austria, Great Britain (Witsch-Baumgartner et al. 2001) and from Italy (De Brasi et al. 1999). In these Caucasian populations, the most common mutations (IVS8-1G>C, W151X, V326L, R352W, R404C and T93M) account for 60% of SLOS mutant alleles. These suggest that frequent SLOS-causing mutations have different geographic origins and histories. This project will investigate the frequency gradient of DHCR7 mutations in the African American population.