Myositis with sarcoplasmic inclusions in Nakajo-Nishimura syndrome: a genetic inflammatory myopathy

Nakajo-Nishimura syndrome (NNS) is an autosomal recessive disease caused by biallelic mutations in the PSMB8 gene that encodes the immunoproteasome subunit β5i. There have been only a limited number of reports on the clinicopathological features of the disease in genetically confirmed cases.

We studied clinical and pathological features of three NNS patients who all carry the homozygous p.G201V mutations in PSMB8. Patients' muscle specimens were analysed with histology and immunohistochemistry.

All patients had episodes of typical periodic fever and skin rash, and later developed progressive muscle weakness and atrophy, similar to previous reports. Oral corticosteroid was used for treatment but showed no obvious efficacy. On muscle pathology, lymphocytes were present in the endomysium surrounding non-necrotic fibres, as well as in the perimysium perivascular area. Nearly all fibres strongly expressed MHC-I in the sarcolemma. In the eldest patient, there were abnormal protein aggregates in the sarcoplasm, immunoreactive to p62, TDP-43 and ubiquitin antibodies.

These results suggest that inflammation, inclusion pathology and aggregation of abnormal proteins underlie the progressive clinical course of the NNS pathomechanism.