RESULTS
The clinical, biochemical and mutational profiles of patients are
summarized in Table 1. Four patients were classified as GD type 1 and
one as type 2. Among patients with type 1 GD, the onset of
hepatosplenomegaly ranged from 7 months to 7 years old. All
patients whose leukocytic glucocerebrosidase activities were determined
had no or markedly low activities (o1.07nmolmg1 protein
per hour) compared with 11.63±4.97 nmolmg1 protein per hour
in Thai controls.
We successfully identified all 10 mutant alleles with either
long-template PCR or PCR using specific primers for the functional
GBA gene (Table 2). Both methods gave the same results. Four
patients had the p.L483P (L444P) mutation. Patients 1 and 4 were
compound heterozygotes (Figure 1a lower panel, lanes 5 and 6,
respectively). Patients 2 and 3 were homozygotes (Figure 1a lower
panel, lanes 4 and 3, respectively). The parents of patients 2 and 3
denied consanguinity, and were all heterozygous for the c.1448T4C
(p.L483P) mutation. Patient 2 died from hepatic failure at age 16
years. Patient 3 had thrombocytopenia requiring splenectomy at age 4,
fracture of her right femoral neck at age 9 and died from sepsis at age