Aberrant neural crest development causes craniofacial and other malformations in an animal model of Musculocontractural Ehlers-Danlos syndrome
Abstract
Musculocontractural Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (MC-EDS) is a rare recessive disorder that is characterized by connective tissue fragility, distinct craniofacial features and congenital malformations. MC-EDS patients have defects in the enzymes dermatan sulfate epimerase-1 and dermatan 4-O-sulfotransferase-1, which are involved in the biosynthesis of iduronic acid in the chondroitin sulfate/dermatan sulfate (CS/DS) chains of proteoglycans (PGs). While the connective tissue defect is a result of disturbed collagen fibril assembly based on a decreased iduronic acid content of interacting CS/DS-PGs, the cause of the developmental malformations in MC-EDS is not well understood. This review focuses on a new role of CS/DS-PGs in the development of multipotent and highly migratory neural crest (NC) cells in the Xenopus embryo model of MC-EDS. Single iduronic acid residues in CS/DS-PGs are involved in the formation of NC-derived craniofacial structures by facilitating the migration and adhesion of NC cells to fibronectin. Our results suggest a defect in NC development as cause of the craniofacial and other congenital anomalies in MC-EDS patients, which might contribute to an improved diagnosis and etiology-based therapy. (Less)
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a review, done in animal, not in people. Its evidence level is 5 of 5 (Very low · case / narrative / animal / in vitro / in silico). Case reports, narrative reviews, and animal, cell or computer-model studies give the weakest evidence for human health.
Read the paper
Related studies
- The Matrisome: In Silico Definition and In Vivo Characterization by Proteomics of Normal and Tumor Extracellular Matrices
- The Escherichia coli MG1655 in silico metabolic genotype: Its definition, characteristics, and capabilities
- In silico pharmacology for drug discovery: methods for virtual ligand screening and profiling
- In silico prediction of splice-altering single nucleotide variants in the human genome
- In silico clinical trials: how computer simulation will transform the biomedical industry
- In silico optimization of a guava antimicrobial peptide enables combinatorial exploration for peptide design
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.