[Genetic, population and phenotypic characteristics of patients with Hirschsprung disease]

Hirschsprung disease (HSCR) is caused by the absence of ganglion cells in the intestine due to defects in the migration of enteric nervous system cells during embryologic development. The incidence is one in every 5000 births, more common in men than women. There are two main phenotypes according to the aganglionic segment length: Short (S-HSCR, (80% of patients) and Long (L-HSCR, 20%). Variations have been detected in the coding sequence of the RET proto-oncogene in patients with HSCR, suggesting a genetic predisposition to the disease. Our aim is to find and analyze polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with the disease. We are interested also in stablish an association between sex and type of aganglionic segment. We analyzed the RET promoter as well a polymorphism in exon 13 strongly associated to the disease. The populations for the study were a group of 56 patients with sporadic HSCR and 178 healthy controls. The results obtained show that the disease is more common in men than in women (3:1). The RET genotype shows that alleles A and G of the promoter (c.-200A > G and c.-196C > A) and G of exon 13 (c.2307T > G) are associated with the affected population. Our data suggest neither association between the disease phenotype and the distribution of the polymorphisms analyzed nor with the sex of the patients. The presence of certain polymorphisms in the RET sequence indicates a genetic predisposition (combined with other genetic or environmental factors) to the disease.