Abstract
Cavernous angiomas are vascular malformations mostly located in the central nervous system and characterized by enlarged capillary cavities without intervening brain parenchyma1. Clinical symptoms include seizures, haemorrhage and focal neurological deficits. Cavernous angiomas prevalence is close to 0.5% in the general population2. They may be inherited as an autosomal dominant condition in as much as 50% of cases3. Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCM) loci were previously identified on 7q, 7p and 3q (refs 4,5). A strong founder effect was observed in the Hispano-American population, all families being linked to CCM1 on 7q (refs 4,7). CCM1 locus assignment was refined to a 4-cM interval bracketed by D7S2410 and D7S689 ( ref. 8). Here we report a physical and transcriptional map of this interval and that CCM1, a gene whose protein product, KRIT1, interacts with RAP1A (also known as KREV1; ref. 9), a member of the RAS family of GTPases, is mutated in CCM1 families. Our data suggest the involvement of the RAP1A signal transduction pathway in vasculogenesis or angiogenesis10.
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Acknowledgements
We thank all members of the Societe Francaise de Neurochirurgie, in particular, L. Capelle, J.P. Castel, D. Fohano, B. George, J. Philippon, A. Rey and F. Roux, this study would not have been possible without their help; F. Chapon for pathological advice and the families for their participation. S.L.L.C. had a studentship from the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec (FRSQ, Canada). P.L. had a poste d'accueil INSERM and H.H.J. had a fellowship from the Schweizerishe Stiftung fûr Medizinisch-Biologische Stipendien. This work was supported by INSERM, Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche (MESR, ACCSV 1995).
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Couteulx, Sl., Jung, H., Labauge, P. et al. Truncating mutations in CCM1, encoding KRIT1, cause hereditary cavernous angiomas. Nat Genet 23, 189–193 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/13815
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/13815
