A novel mutation of the thiazide-sensitive sodium chloride cotransporter gene in a Japanese family with Gitelman syndrome

Gitelman syndrome is an inherited renal disorder characterized by impaired NaCl reabsorption in the distal convoluted tubule leading to hypokalemia, hypomagnesemia and normocalcemic hypocalciuria. It has been shown that this syndrome results from mutations in the gene encoding the thiazide-sensitive sodium chloride cotransporter (TSC). We performed the mutational analysis in the TSC gene of a 30-year-old Japanese woman with Gitelman syndrome and found two mutations at adjacent spots in both alleles. One was a frame shift mutation which generated stop codon at position 671, the other was a single nucleotide mutation, which resulted in an aminoacid substitution at position 672, Met to Ile. Her 52-year-old mother and two daughters had neither hypokalemia nor hypomagnesemia. However, her mother and her 8-year-old daughter had the Met672Ile mutation as heterozygotes. Her 4-year-old daughter had the same frame shift mutation as her mother, a heterozygotic mutation. These results suggest that Gitelman syndrome requires 2 compound heterozygotic mutations and the coexistence of the large deletion in the C-terminal domain with Met672Ile substitution of the TSC could impair the transporter activity underling the hypokalemia and hypomagnesemia in this patient.