[Zellweger syndrome--a peroxisomal disease]

Zellweger syndrome is a fatal recessively inherited disease with disturbed function of many organs. The disease is caused by a defect of peroxisomes, subcellular organelles, which are absent in these patients. Several genes are necessary for the formation and function of the peroxisomes. The clinical picture of Zellweger syndrome can be caused by defects in a number of genes. On the other hand, clinically different diseases such as neonatal adrenoleucodystrophy and infantile Refsum disease have been shown to be allelic to Zellweger syndrome. We describe a typical Zellweger patient belonging to complementation group 1, which is by far the largest group containing more than half of the Zellweger patients.