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Search of Somatic Mutations of NKX2-5 and GATA4 Genes in Chinese Patients with Sporadic Congenital Heart Disease

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Abstract

Congenital heart disease (CHD) usually occurs sporadically, with only a minority of cases associated with a known genetic mechanism. Cardiac-specific transcription factors NKX2-5 and GATA4 play key roles in the mammalian heart development, and the affected cardiac tissues of CHD patients are prone to somatic mutations which thus participate in the pathogenesis of CHD. We collected 98 patients with sporadic CHD, extracted genomic DNA from cardiac tissues and blood, and then screened NKX2-5 and GATA4 genes using PCR-direct sequence analysis. A novel heterozygous missense mutation (c.907G > A, p.V303I) of NKX2-5 gene was identified in a patient with tetralogy of Fallots. Functional assay revealed that this mutant was associated with significantly reduced transcriptional activity. In addition, we found two known single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs2277923, rs3729753) in NKX2-5 and two known SNPs (rs56166237, rs3729856) in GATA4. All variations identified in cardiac tissues were consistent with those of peripheral blood, and no somatic mutations were found in cardiac tissues. Our study shows no evidence of NKX2-5 and GATA4 somatic mutations playing a role in the pathogenesis of sporadic CHD.

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Abbreviations

CHD:

Congenital heart disease

TOF:

Tetralogy of Fallots

ASD:

Atrial septal defects

VSD:

Ventricular septal defects

TAPVC:

Total anomalous pulmonary venous connection

SRVOT:

Stenosis of right ventricular outflow tract

DCRV:

Double-chambered right ventricle

d-TGA:

Transposition of the great arteries

DORV:

Double outlet of right ventricle

RVOT:

Right ventricular outflow tract

SNP:

Single-nucleotide polymorphism.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all the patients and families who participated in this study. We would like to thank all the cardiothoracic surgeons from Nanjing Children’s Hospital for their support regarding CHD heart tissues, and all the doctors of clinical laboratory.

Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 81670284, 81000076), Nanjing Science and Technology Project (Grant No. 201715057), and Nanjing Medical Science and Technique Development Foundation.

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Author notes

  1. Jie Yin and Jianhua Qian have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiology, Children’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, 72 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Jie Yin, Jianhua Qian, Genyin Dai, Yuming Qin, Ting Xu, Zewei Li, Han Zhang & Shiwei Yang

  2. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Pediatrics, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210029, China

    Chunli Wang

  3. Nanjing Key Laboratory of Pediatrics, Nanjing Children’s Hospital, Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Chunli Wang

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  1. Jie Yin
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  2. Jianhua Qian
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  3. Genyin Dai
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  4. Chunli Wang
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  5. Yuming Qin
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  6. Ting Xu
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  7. Zewei Li
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  8. Han Zhang
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  9. Shiwei Yang
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Correspondence to Shiwei Yang.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Yin, J., Qian, J., Dai, G. et al. Search of Somatic Mutations of NKX2-5 and GATA4 Genes in Chinese Patients with Sporadic Congenital Heart Disease. Pediatr Cardiol 40, 17–22 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00246-018-1955-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00246-018-1955-z

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