Exclusion of EGFR, HRAS, DSP, JUP, CTNNB1, PLEC1, and EPPK1 as Functional Candidate Genes in 7 Families With Syndromic Diarrhoea

Syndromic diarrhoea (SD) is a rare disease associating intractable diarrhoea and hair abnormalities. In an attempt to identify the gene causative for SD, we studied several functional candidate genes, based on their implication in overlapping phenotypes in mice (EGFR) or in humans (HRAS, JUP, DSP EPPK1, PLEC1, and CTNNB1) in 8 patients affected by SD. Except for EGFR and HRAS, all selected genes encode for cell adhesion proteins. Using direct sequencing or linkage analysis, we excluded all of the candidate genes as the disease-causing gene in our group of patients; however, the hypothesis of intercellular junctions defect in SD remains seductive. JPGN 48:501-503, 2009.