Restoration of phytanic acid oxidation in Refsum disease fibroblasts from patients with mutations in the phytanoyl-CoA hydroxylase gene.

Refsum disease (RD) is biochemically characterized by the excessive accumulation of phytanic acid in tissues and body fluids due to deficiency of phytanoyl-CoA hydroxylase (PAHX). In this study, we screened three RD patients and identified a novel deletion (88 amino acids), and a missense mutation (Arg275Trp) in the previously reported PAHX cDNA (Jansen et al., 1997; Mihalik et al., 1997). Moreover, transfection of skin fibroblasts from two RD patients with wild-type PAHX gene restored the activity for alpha-oxidation of phytanic acid. Southern analysis on a somatic cell hybrid panel detected the PAHX gene on chromosome 10, corroborating radiation hybrid and homozygosity mapping data (Mihalik et al., 1997; Nadal et al., 1995).