Lymphoedema is swelling of parts of the body due to a failure of the lymph vessels. The lymph system takes up fluid from the tissues, and transports cells that fight against infection round the body.<\/p>\n
This paper describes the identification of a gene which can cause lymphoedema. A newly developed technique known as whole exome sequencing was used to find this gene.\u00a0 The gene, called GJC2<\/em>, makes a protein that is part of cell junctions. It opens an entirely new area to look for genes that might cause this disease. It has also been identified independently by a research group in the USA, confirming it does cause lymphoedema.\u00a0<\/p>\n It is hoped that using this new technique will rapidly lead to the discovery of more genes which cause lymphoedema. (Pia Ostergaard, Michael A Simpson, Glen Brice, Sahar Mansour, Fiona C Connell, Alexandros Onoufriadis, Anne H Child, Jae Hwang, Kamini Kalidas, Peter S Mortimer, Richard Trembath, Steve Jeffery, http:\/\/jmg.bmj.com\/content\/early\/2011\/01\/24\/jmg.2010.085563?papetoc<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lymphoedema is swelling of parts of the body due to a failure of the lymph vessels. The lymph system takes up fluid from the tissues, and transports cells that fight against infection round the body. This paper describes the identification of a gene which can cause lymphoedema. A newly developed technique known as whole exome […]<\/p>\n