There is no doubt that MCDS is an autosomal dominant inherited disorder, resulting from heterozygous mutation of the COL10A1 gene [4, 10, 17]. In the present study, probands with MCDS and affected family members were identified in two large independent Chinese pedigrees by means of typical clinical findings and genetic analysis. Interestingly, although these individuals suffered from identical disease, there were still differences in the severity of clinical manifestations among all the patients in each family. Moreover, atavism, the reappearance of an ancestral character in a descendant individual whose immediate ancestors lacked this character, was present in family 1. The presentation of II:1 in family 1 was absolutely normal without any deformity except moderate stature, but no radiological examination was performed for him due to individual’s reluctance, so we failed to acquire further evidence of clinical diagnosis. Of note, the mutation c.1765T>A in the COL10A1 gene was confirmed in the genome of II:1 in family 1, which was similar to a person who carried a COL10A1 variant, but exhibited normal phenotype in a previous report [19]. We attributed the phenomenon of atavism and differential performance to irregular dominance based on the presence of an identical pathogenic mutation in each family, possibly caused by the existence of a modifier gene and environmental differences [20]. Recently, Forouhan et al. proposed that ATF6α and ATF6β play important roles in modulating disease severity in MCDS mice by positively or negatively regulating the endoplasmic reticulum stress response [21], which we considered to be the associated mechanism of the irregular dominance phenomenon. However, further molecular experiments are needed.
Depending on the differential expressivity of all affected members in two Chinese families (Table 1), we have summarized the following possible rules on the pedigrees affected with MCDS [6, 16]. First, based on the onset age, these patients were characterized by delayed dominance, which only occurred months or even a year after birth, at 6 to 18 months old in this study, rather than at birth. Furthermore, the severity of disease was closely associated with onset age presenting a negative correlation, that is, the earlier the onset age, the more severe the condition. For example, decreased quality of life, including unstable standing or waddling gait was observed in patients whose onset ages were only around 6 months old. Conversely, only short stature without other deformities was exhibited in those whose onset ages were 10 months old or later. In addition, we found that there were possible, but not significant, potential differences in gender susceptibility in MCDS. Moreover, despite the trend that male patients were more severely affected than females, as observed in family 2, we still could not draw a firm conclusion due to the rather small sample size.
The molecular structure of type X collagen is a homotrimer of three X (α1) chains, each comprised of a 463 amino acid Gly-X-Y collagenous domain (COL1) flanked by a 38-residue N-terminal noncollagenous domain (NC2) and a 161-residue C-terminal noncollagenous domain (NC1) (Fig. 4C) [9]. In addition, there is an 18-residue signal peptide ahead of the NC2 domain. To date, a total of 50 mutations of the COL10A1 gene resulting in MCDS have been reported (Supplementary data). All of the identified mutation sites of COL10A1 associated with MCDS, including mutations in the present study, are located in the NC1 domain [4, 8, 12, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28], except for two missense mutations in the signal peptide and one in the triple helical domain. As for genotype-phenotype correlations, the three variants that are not located in the NC1 domain are associated with late-onset ages and mild manifestations of MCDS, but most of those located in the NC1 domain lead to the severe forms of this disease.
In the present study, two novel variants resulted in severe clinical features in parts of affected individuals, which was consistent with previous study [4, 12]. However, the current study is the first to report the phenomenon of irregular dominance in MCDS patients. The function of the NC1 domain is mainly to assist the folding of the peptide chain so that it can combine to form a homotrimer [5]. Therefore the NC1 domain becomes impaired, the collagen X (α1) chains are prevented from aggregating and instead form non-functional polymers, which tend to promote harmful accumulation of invalid products and even initiate the endoplasmic reticulum stress response [5, 29]. Meanwhile, the quantity of correctly-folded collagen X is reduced, and therefore functional haploinsufficiency was the most likely cause of the MCDS [14, 30, 31].
According to previous experiments, COL10A1 nonsense mutations in cartilage tissue lead to removal of the mutant mRNA by nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD), which is the pathogenic molecular mechanism of nonsense mutations in MCDS [18, 32]. Nevertheless, the process via which COL10A1 missense mutations result in MCDS is completely different [17]. In the case of COL10A1 missense mutations, a common consequence appears to be disruption of collagen X trimerization, homeostasis, secretion and combination, with consequent intracellular or pericellular degradation [6, 17]. In the present study, one of the substitutions (p.Phe589Ile) affects a hydrophobic area and the other (p.Lys616Glu) is predicted to affect the surface of the assembled trimer (Fig. 4A B). The substitution p.Phe589Ile weakens the hydrophobicity of the wild type residue, which is likely to seriously impact the assembly and stability of the hydrophobic channel and thus hinder collagen X trimerization. The other substitution (p.Lys616Glu) changes the residue site from alkaline to acidic, potentially destroying the combination of trimeric collagen X into supramolecular structures within the cartilage pericellular matrix. Together, these biochemical and pathophysiological processes may explain the underlying mechanisms of MCDS in the two present pedigrees.
To our knowledge, the present study is the first report of COL10A1 missense mutations in Chinese pedigrees with MCDS. In addition, the dominant negative effect may be playing an important role in the development of MCDS [17, 33], but this undetermined mechanism will need further experimental verification.