You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Original article
GATA4 sequence variants in patients with congenital heart disease
  1. A Tomita-Mitchell1,
  2. C L Maslen2,
  3. C D Morris3,
  4. V Garg4,
  5. E Goldmuntz1
  1. 1
    Division of Cardiology, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
  2. 2
    Department of Molecular and Medical Genetics, and OHSU Heart Research Center, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA
  3. 3
    Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology, and OHSU Heart Research Center, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA
  4. 4
    Departments of Pediatrics and Molecular Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, Texas, USA
  1. E Goldmuntz, MD, Division of Cardiology, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Abramson Research Center 702A, 3615 Civic Center Blvd, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA; goldmuntz{at}email.chop.edu

Abstract

Background: Recent reports have identified mutations in the transcription factor GATA4 in familial cases of cardiac septal defects. The prevalence of GATA4 mutations in the population of patients with septal defects is unknown. Given that patients with septal and conotruncal defect can share a common genetic basis, it is unclear whether patients with additional types of CHD might also have GATA4 mutations.

Aims: To explore these questions by investigating a large population of 628 patients with either septal or conotruncal defects for GATA4 sequence variants.

Methods: The GATA4 coding region and exon–intron boundaries were investigated for sequence variants using denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography or conformation-sensitive gel electrophoresis. Samples showing peak or band shifts were reamplified from genomic DNA and sequenced.

Results: Four missense sequence variants (Gly93Ala, Gln316Glu, Ala411Val, Asp425Asn) were identified in five patients (two with atrial septal defect, two with ventricular septal defect and one with tetralogy of Fallot), which were not seen in a control population. All four affected amino acid residues are conserved across species, and two of the sequence variants lead to changes in polarity. Ten synonymous sequence variants were also identified in 18 patients, which were not seen in the control population.

Conclusions: These data suggest that non-synonymous GATA4 sequence variants are found in a small percentage of patients with septal defects and are very uncommonly found in patients with conotruncal defects.

https://doi.org/10.1136/jmg.2007.052183

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Funding: this work was supported by grants from the American Heart Association (0140151n) and National Institutes of Health (NHLBI) grant agencies (p50 hl62177, p50 hl74731) to E Goldmuntz.

    • Competing interests: none declared.

    • Abbreviations:
      ASD
      atrial septal defect
      CHD
      congenital heart disease
      DHPLC
      denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography
      CSGE
      conformation-sensitive gel electrophoresis
      DORV
      double-outlet right ventricle
      D-TGA
      D-transposition of the great arteries
      ESE
      exonic splice enhancer
      IAA
      interrupted aortic arch
      L-TGA
      L-transposition of the great arteries
      TA
      truncus arteriosus
      TOF
      tetralogy of Fallot
      VSD
      ventricular septal defect