Prevalence of CFTR mutations in hypertrypsinaemia detected through neonatal screening for cystic fibrosis

Nowadays, most of the neonatal screening programs for cystic fibrosis (CF) combine the assay of immunoreactive trypsinogen (IRT) with the analysis of the most common mutations of the CFTR gene. The efficiency of this strategy is now well established, but the identification of heterozygotes among neonates with increased IRT is perceived as a drawback. We proposed to assess the heterozygosity frequency among the children with hypertrypsinaemia detected through the CF screening program implemented in Brittany (France) 10 years ago, to describe the CFTR mutations detected in them and to determine the frequency of the IVS8-5T variant. The molecular analysis relies, in our protocol, on the systematic analysis of three exons of the gene (7-10-11). A total of 160,019 babies were screened for CF in western Brittany between 1992 and 1998. Of the 1964 newborns with increased IRT (1.2%), 60 were CF and 213 were carriers. Heterozygosity frequency was 12.8%), i.e. 3 times greater than in the general population (3.9%; p < 10(-6)), Variability of mutations detected in carriers was greater than in CF children (21 mutations versus 10) and a high proportion of mild mutations or variants (A349V, R297Q, R347H, V317A, G544S, R553G, etc) was observed in carriers. The allelic frequency of the 5T (5.6%) was not significantly increased in this cohort. This study is consistent with previous ones in finding a significantly higher rate of heterozygotes than expected among neonates with hypertrypsinaemia. The strategy of screening used here allows to highlight the variability of mutations detected in heterozygotes and to show that severe mutations, as well as mild mutations, have been observed in neonates with hypertrypsinaemia. If there is no doubt that neonatal hypertrypsinaemia is associated with an elevated frequency of carriers, the underlying mechanisms remain obscure.