Abstract
BACKGROUND: Steroid 21-hydroxylase deficiency is present in 90-95% of all cases with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), an autosomal recessive disorder. It can present as the severe classical salt wasting (SW) or simple virilising (SV) form, or the milder, nonclassical form. Nine pseudogene-derived point mutations account for about 80% of all defects in the CYP21A2 gene coding the 21-hydroxylase enzyme. METHODS: We have studied nine CYP21A2 point mutations in 61 Macedonian and 24 Serbian patients with different clinical presentations of CAH, using the PCR/ACRS method. RESULTS: Six different mutations were detected in 71.3% of alleles of the Macedonian patients. The most prevalent mutation was IVS2. Mutations were detected in 85.4% of the SW, 83.4% SV and 47.7% LO alleles. In the Macedonian patients the most common genotype was IVS2/IVS2. Five different mutations were detected in 64.6% of alleles of the Serbian patients. The most prevalent was P30L. Mutations were present in 83.3% SW, 80% SV and 50% of the LO alleles. In the Serbian patients, the P30L/P30L genotype was the most frequent. CONCLUSIONS: Specific CYP21A2 mutations are involved in different clinical forms of CAH. High frequency of P30L was found in both populations. Also, high prevalence of the mild P30L mutation was found in both the Macedonian and Serbian classical SV patients. Our findings support the role of the P30L mutation in pronounced virilisation. An unusual finding is the low frequency of V281L in the Macedonian non-classical patients and its absence in the ones from Serbia.