IS SALT-WASTING IN CONGENITAL ADRENAL HYPERPLASIA DUE TO THE SAME GENE AS THE FASCICULATA DEFECT?

Abstract

Clinical studies in patients with 21-hydroxylase deficiency congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) were designed to ascertain the genetics of the salt-wasting component of the disorder. The gene controlling aldosterone biosynthesis may not be the same gene that controls 21-hydroxylase in the adrenal zona fasciculata. This we infer from the following clinical observations: (1) concordance for salt-wasting is not observed in all HLA-identical sibs with CAH; (2) the defect in aldosterone biosynthesis does not persist throughout life as does the fasciculata defect; (3) there is a significantly increased gene frequency of B40 and Bw47 in salt-wasting CAH; (4) obligate heterozygote parents of patients with salt-wasting CAH do not express a partial defect in aldosterone biosynthesis, as they do in the fasciculata. These observations cast doubt on the accepted concept of the autosomal recessive transmission of the glomerulosa 21-hydroxylase deficiency.