Current advances in molecular genetics of autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease

Autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease results from at least two causal genes, PKD1 and PKD2. The identical clinical phenotype in human patients and targeted Pkd1 and Pkd2 mutant mouse models provides evidence that both gene products act in the same pathogenic pathway. The discovery of direct PKD1 and PKD2 interactions implies that both gene products, polycystin-1 and polycystin-2, play a functional role in the same molecular complex. The spectrum of germ-line mutations in both genes and the somatic mutations identified from individual PKD1 or PKD2 cysts indicate that loss of function of either PKD1 or PKD2 is the mechanism of cystogenesis in autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease. A novel mouse model, Pkd2WS25/-, has proved that loss of heterozygosity is the molecular mechanism of autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease. Recently, studies on the expression patterns of PKD1 and PKD2 in humans or mice indicate that polycystin 1 and polycystin 2 seem to have their own respective functional roles, even though most of the functions of these polycystins are parallel during human and mouse development. Pkd2-deficient mice have cardiac septum defects, but Pkd1 knockout mice do not have this phenotype. On the other hand, Pkd2 has a very low level of expression in the central nervous system when compared with Pkd1. In addition, the level of expression of Pkd1 is increased during mesenchymal condensation, whereas Pkd2 expression is unchanged. Preliminary data have shown that the PKD1/PKD2 compound trans-heterozygous has a more severe cystic phenotype in the kidney than that of an age-matched heterozygous type 1 or type 2 of autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease alone. This finding suggests that PKD1 may be a modifier of disease severity for PKD2, and vice versa. The characteristics of the contiguous PKD1/TSC2 syndrome phenotypes and the data from Krd mice imply that TSC2 and PAX2 may also serve as potential modifiers for the disease severity of autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease.