Myopathic form of very-long chain acyl-coa dehydrogenase deficiency: evidence for temperature-sensitive mild mutations in both mutant alleles in a Japanese girl.

In a 14-year-old Japanese girl, manifested recurrent myalgia with elevated serum creatine kinase after moderate exercise became evident, and she was diagnosed as having a myopathic form of very-long chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency. Her first clinical symptom of the disease was evident when she was 6 y of age. She had never had hypoglycemic attacks, and hepatomegaly and cardiomyopathy were absent. The diagnosis was suspected on the basis of the urinary organic acid profile after a 36-h fast, long-chain fatty acid-loading test, and the blood acylcarnitine profile. Acyl-CoA dehydrogenase activity with palmitoyl-CoA as a substrate was severely decreased in her fibroblasts, and the amount of very-long chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase protein was reduced. She was a compound heterozygote of A416T from her father and R450H from her mother. Transient expression of mutant A416T cDNA retained a significant residual acyl-CoA dehydrogenase activity of 10% and 20% normal at 37 degrees C and 30 degrees C, respectively. Specific activity of A416T mutant protein was calculated to be one fifth that of control. In the case of R450H mutant expression, a low residual acyl-CoA dehydrogenase activity of 5% normal was detected at 30 degrees C although significant activity was absent at 37 degrees C. The R450H protein was not detected at 37 degrees C but was clearly detected at one fourth the normal amount at 30 degrees C. These results indicate that both mutations were temperature-sensitive mild mutations, the result being the mildest phenotype of very-long chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency.