TY - JOUR A1 - Wente, Sarah A1 - Schröder, Simone A1 - Buckard, Johannes A1 - Büttel, Hans-Martin A1 - von Deimling, Florian A1 - Diener, Wilfried A1 - Häussler, Martin A1 - Hübschle, Susanne A1 - Kinder, Silvia A1 - Kurlemann, Gerhard A1 - Kretzschmar, Christoph A1 - Lingen, Michael A1 - Maroske, Wiebke A1 - Mundt, Dirk A1 - Sánchez-Albisua, Iciar A1 - Seeger, Jürgen A1 - Toelle, Sandra P. A1 - Boltshauser, Eugen A1 - Brockmann, Knut T1 - Nosological delineation of congenital ocular motor apraxia type Cogan: an observational study JF - Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases N2 - Background The nosological assignment of congenital ocular motor apraxia type Cogan (COMA) is still controversial. While regarded as a distinct entity by some authorities including the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man catalog of genetic disorders, others consider COMA merely a clinical symptom. Methods We performed a retrospective multicenter data collection study with re-evaluation of clinical and neuroimaging data of 21 previously unreported patients (8 female, 13 male, ages ranging from 2 to 24 years) diagnosed as having COMA. Results Ocular motor apraxia (OMA) was recognized during the first year of life and confined to horizontal pursuit in all patients. OMA attenuated over the years in most cases, regressed completely in two siblings, and persisted unimproved in one individual. Accompanying clinical features included early onset ataxia in most patients and cognitive impairment with learning disability (n = 6) or intellectual disability (n = 4). Re-evaluation of MRI data sets revealed a hitherto unrecognized molar tooth sign diagnostic for Joubert syndrome in 11 patients, neuroimaging features of Poretti-Boltshauser syndrome in one case and cerebral malformation suspicious of a tubulinopathy in another subject. In the remainder, MRI showed vermian hypo-/dysplasia in 4 and no abnormalities in another 4 patients. There was a strong trend to more severe cognitive impairment in patients with Joubert syndrome compared to those with inconclusive MRI, but otherwise no significant difference in clinical phenotypes between these two groups. Conclusions Systematical renewed analysis of neuroimaging data resulted in a diagnostic reappraisal in the majority of patients with early-onset OMA in the cohort reported here. This finding poses a further challenge to the notion of COMA constituting a separate entity and underlines the need for an expert assessment of neuroimaging in children with COMA, especially if they show cognitive impairment. KW - congenital ocular motor apraxia KW - molar tooth sign KW - Joubert syndrome Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-166534 VL - 11 IS - 104 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schütz, Burkhard A1 - Jurastow, Innokentij A1 - Bader, Sandra A1 - Ringer, Cornelia A1 - Engelhardt, Jakob von A1 - Chubanov, Vladimir A1 - Gudermann, Thomas A1 - Diener, Martin A1 - Kummer, Wolfgang A1 - Krasteva-Christ, Gabriela A1 - Weihe, Eberhard T1 - Chemical coding and chemosensory properties of cholinergic brush cells in the mouse gastrointestinal and biliary tract JF - Frontiers in Physiology N2 - The mouse gastro-intestinal and biliary tract mucosal epithelia harbor choline acetyltransferase (ChAT)-positive brush cells with taste cell-like traits. With the aid of two transgenic mouse lines that express green fluorescent protein (EGFP) under the control of the ChAT promoter (EGFP\(^{ChAT}\)) and by using in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry we found that EGFP\(^{ChAT}\) cells were clustered in the epithelium lining the gastric groove. EGFP\(^{ChAT}\) cells were numerous in the gall bladder and bile duct, and found scattered as solitary cells along the small and large intestine. While all EGFP\(^{ChAT}\) cells were also ChAT-positive, expression of the high-affinity choline transporter (ChT1) was never detected. Except for the proximal colon, EGFP\(^{ChAT}\) cells also lacked detectable expression of the vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT). EGFP\(^{ChAT}\) cells were found to be separate from enteroendocrine cells, however they were all immunoreactive for cytokeratin 18 (CK18), transient receptor potential melastatin-like subtype 5 channel (TRPM5), and for cyclooxygenases 1 (COX1) and 2 (COX2). The ex vivo stimulation of colonic EGFP\(^{ChAT}\) cells with the bitter substance denatonium resulted in a strong increase in intracellular calcium, while in other epithelial cells such an increase was significantly weaker and also timely delayed. Subsequent stimulation with cycloheximide was ineffective in both cell populations. Given their chemical coding and chemosensory properties, EGFP\(^{ChAT}\) brush cells thus may have integrative functions and participate in induction of protective reflexes and inflammatory events by utilizing ACh and prostaglandins for paracrine signaling. KW - vesicular acetylcholine transporter KW - nonneuronal acetylcholine KW - nervous system KW - functional characterization KW - cholinergic KW - taste receptor cells KW - enteroendocrine cells KW - gene locus KW - tuft cells KW - transgenic mice KW - expression KW - brush cell KW - ChAT KW - VAChT KW - ChT1 KW - intestine KW - gall bladder KW - bile duct Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-143550 VL - 6 IS - 87 ER -