Korea is in the low-prevalence area of beta-thalassemia and the Korean population has relatively homogenous racial characteristics. Recently, we identified some causative mutations of the Korean beta-thalassemia patients. In order to elucidate the genetic background of beta-thalassemia alleles in Koreans, we determined the restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP)-haplotype and framework ...

BACKGROUND Mutations in the transforming growth factor β-induced gene (TGFBI) are major causes of genetic corneal dystrophies (CDs), which can be grouped into TGFBI CDs. Although a few studies have reported the clinical and genetic features of Korean patients with TGFBI CD, no data are available regarding the frequency and spectrum of TGFBI mutations in a consecutive series of Korean patients w...

CONTEXT Homozygous mutations in SERPINF1 cause deficiency of pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) and lead to osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) type VI, but it is not known whether heterozygous mutations in SERPINF1 cause a phenotype. OBJECTIVE In the present study, we therefore assessed family members of individuals with OI type VI and compared the results of SERPINF1 mutation carriers with t...

A novel oncogenic mutation (FIP1L1PDGFRA), which results in a constitutively activated platelet-derived growth factor receptor(PDGFRA), has been invariably associated with a primary eosinophilic disorder. The current study examines both the prevalence and the associated clinicopathologic features of this mutation in a cohort of 89 adult patients presenting with an absolute eosinophil count (AEC...

Mutations of the p53 tumor suppressor gene are a genetic hallmark of human astrocytic neoplasms, but their predictive role in glioma progression is still poorly understood. We analyzed 144 biopsies from 67 patients with recurrent astrocytoma by single-strand conformation polymorphism and direct DNA sequencing. We found that 46 of 67 patients (69%) had a p53 mutation in at least one biopsy. In 4...

Human patients with myoclonic epilepsy with ragged-red fibers (MERRF) suffer from regionalized pathology caused by a mutation in the mitochondrial DNA (m.8344A→G). In MERRF-syndrome brain and skeletal muscles are predominantly affected, despite mtDNA being present in any tissue. In the past such tissue-specificity could not be explained by varying mtDNA mutation loads. In search for a region-sp...

β-thalassemia, a monogenic autosomal recessive disorder, is prevalent in middle east, particularly in iran. in iran, near to 20 mutations in the β-globin gene are introduced as common mutations with varying incidence frequencies in each city. therefore, detection and screening for couples at high risk can help to solve the problems of this disease. in this study, optimized genotyping of two com...