X-linked recessive nephrolithiasis: presentation and diagnosis in children

Childhood stones

Urinary stones in children are usually genetic and most commonly due to hypercalciuria. Symptoms of urolithiasis in children differ among age groups. Isolated hematuria in children may be caused by hypercalciuria and precede calculus formation. Careful evaluation successfully identifies the cause of urinary stones in most children, although diagnostic criteria may vary in different age groups. Therapies should be targeted to the underlying diagnosis.

Urinary megalin deficiency implicates abnormal tubular endocytic function in Fanconi syndrome

Normal reabsorption of glomerular filtrate proteins probably requires recycling of the endocytic receptors megalin (gp330) and cubilin. Both receptors are located on the luminal surface of the renal proximal tubule epithelium. Whether abnormal amounts of receptor are present in the urine of patients with Dent's disease, Lowe's syndrome, or autosomal dominant idiopathic Fanconi syndrome was explored. They are all forms of the renal Fanconi syndrome and are associated with tubular proteinuria. Urine samples of equal creatinine contents were dialyzed, lyophilized, and subjected to electrophoresis on nonreducing sodium dodecyl sulfate-5% polyacrylamide gels. Proteins were blotted and probed with anti-megalin IgG, anti-cubilin IgG, or receptor-associated protein. Megalin and cubilin levels detected by immunochemiluminescence were measured as integrated pixels and expressed as percentages of the normal mean values. A striking deficiency of urinary megalin, compared with normal individuals (n = 42), was observed for eight of nine families with Dent's disease (n = 10) and for the two families with Lowe's syndrome (n = 3). The family with autosomal dominant idiopathic Fanconi syndrome (n = 2) exhibited megalin levels within the normal range. The measured levels of cubilin were normal for all patients. These results are consistent with defective recycling of megalin to the apical cell surface of the proximal tubules and thus decreased loss into urine in Dent's disease and Lowe's syndrome. This defect would interfere with the normal endocytic function of megalin, result in losses of potential ligands into the urine, and produce tubular proteinuria.

Disorders of phosphate metabolism

Correct identification of the disorders of hypophosphatemia and hyperphosphatemia is important for determining therapy. Further research will provide insights into normal phosphate homeostasis, a complex and fascinating process.

Isolated hypercalciuria with mutation in CLCN5: relevance to idiopathic hypercalciuria

Isolated hypercalciuria with mutation in CLCN5: Relevance to idiopathic hypercalciuria.

BACKGROUND

Idiopathic hypercalciuria (IH) is the most common risk factor for kidney stones and often has a genetic component. Dent's disease (X-linked nephrolithiasis) is associated with mutations in the CLCN5 chloride channel gene, and low molecular weight (LMW) proteinuria was universally observed in affected males. We sought to identify mutations in CLCN5 or abnormalities in LMW protein excretion in a large group of patients with IH and in a rat model of genetic hypercalciuria.

METHODS

One hundred and seven patients with IH (82 adults and 25 children) and one asymptomatic hypercalciuric man with a known inactivating mutation in CLCN5 were studied. Secondary causes of hypercalciuria were excluded in all. The excretion of retinol-binding protein and beta2-microglobulin was measured by immunoassay in 101 patients with IH. Mutation analysis of the CLCN5 gene was performed in 32 patients with IH and in the genetic hypercalciuric stone-forming (GHS) rat strain.

RESULTS

LMW protein excretion was normal in 92 patients with IH, and only slight abnormalities were found in the other nine, none of whom had a mutation in CLCN5. One 27-year-old man who had a CLCN5 mutation was found to have isolated hypercalciuria without LMW proteinuria, renal failure, or other evidence of renal disease. Mutation analysis was normal in 32 patients with IH. The CLCN5 sequence was normal in the GHS rat.

CONCLUSIONS

Inactivation of CLCN5 can be found in the setting of hypercalciuria without other features of X-linked nephrolithiasis. However, mutations in CLCN5 do not represent a common cause of IH.

CLCN5 chloride-channel mutations in six new North American families with X-linked nephrolithiasis

BACKGROUND

X-linked nephrolithiasis, or Dent's disease, encompasses several clinical syndromes of low molecular weight (LMW) proteinuria, hypercalciuria, nephrocalcinosis, nephrolithiasis, and renal failure, and is associated with mutations in the CLCN5 gene encoding a kidney-specific voltage-gated chloride channel. Some patients from Europe have rickets, and all symptomatic patients confirmed by mutation analysis have been male.

METHODS

We analyzed the CLCN5 DNA sequence in six new families with this disease.

RESULTS

In three probands, a single-base substitution yielded a nonsense triplet at codons 28, 34, and 343, respectively, and in two families, one of which was Hispanic, we found single-base deletions at codons 40 and 44, leading to premature termination of translation. In the sixth family, a single-base change from C to T predicted substitution of leucine for serine at codon 244, previously reported in two European families with prominent rickets, though this patient of Ashkenazi origin did not have rickets. Each of these mutations was confirmed by restriction endonuclease analysis, or repeat sequencing and CFLP. The R34X mutation occurred in a Canadian infant with severe rickets. The family with the R28X nonsense mutation included one woman with recurrent kidney stones and another woman with glomerular sclerosis. In another family, a woman heterozygous for the W343X mutation also had nephrolithiasis.

CONCLUSIONS

These studies expand the range of mutations identified in this disease, and broaden the phenotypic range to include clinically affected women and the first North American case with severe rickets.