Expression analysis of two mutations in carnitine palmitoyltransferase IA deficiency

Carnitine palmitoyltransferase I (CPT I) is one of the carnitine cycle enzymes that plays a role in the transportation of long-fatty acids into the mitochondria for beta-oxidation. Hepatic carnitine palmitoyltransferase I (CPT IA) is one of the isozymes of CPT I, and its deficiency results in an autosomal recessive mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation disorder. To date, 19 patients with CPT IA deficiency and 9 CPT IA mutations have been reported. Recently, six novel mutations in the CPT IA gene were reported in Japanese patients with CPT I deficiencies who were clinically diagnosed as having a Reye-like syndrome. One of these mutations was a missense mutation, 1079A>G (E360G). The other was a splicing mutation, 2027-2028+2delAAGT, which caused aberrant splicing transcripts, whereas 1876-2028del, 2027-2028insGTCTCTTCC ACTTCTTCC, and 2026-2028del were three aberrant transcripts that kept reading in-frame. In this report, an expression assay using SV40 transformed fibroblasts was performed to investigate the consequences of these two mutations on enzyme activity and protein levels. Molecular analysis in this study revealed that the two mutations 1079A>G and 2028+2delAAGT were the disease-causing mutations.