Anti-SCARF2 polyclonal antibody

Marden-Walker syndrome is challenging to diagnose, as there is significant overlap with other multi-system congenital contracture syndromes including Beals congenital contractural arachnodactyly, D4ST1-Deficient Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (adducted thumb-clubfoot syndrome), Schwartz-Jampel syndrome, Freeman-Sheldon syndrome, Cerebro-oculo-facio-skeletal syndrome, and Van den Ende-Gupta syndrome. We discuss this differential diagnosis in the context of a boy from a consanguineous union with Van den Ende-Gupta syndrome, a diagnosis initially confused by the atypical presence of intellectual disability. SNP microarray and whole exome sequencing identified a homozygous frameshift mutation (p.L870V) in SCARF2 and predicted damaging mutations in several genes, most notably DGCR2 (p.P75L) and NCAM2 (p.S147G), both possible candidates for this child's intellectual disability. We review distinguishing features for each Marden-Walker-like syndrome and propose a clinical algorithm for diagnosis among this spectrum of disorders. (C) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Calcium (Ca2+) signaling-dependent systems, such as the epidermal differentiation process, must effectively respond to variations in Ca2+ concentration. Members of the Ca2+-binding proteins play a central function in the transduction of Ca2+ signals, exerting their roles through a Ca2+-dependent interaction with their target proteins, spatially and temporally. By performing a suppression subtractive hybridization screen we identified a novel mouse gene, Scarf (skin calmodulin-related factor), which has homology to calmodulin (CaM)- like Ca2+-binding protein genes and is exclusively expressed in differentiating keratinocytes in the epidermis. The Scarf open reading frame encodes a 148-amino acid protein that contains four conserved EF-hand motifs ( predicted to be Ca2+-binding domains) and has homology to mouse CaM, human CaM-like protein, hClp, and human CaM-like skin protein, hClsp. The functionality of Scarf EF-hand domains was assayed with a radioactive Ca2+-binding method. By Southern blot and computational genome sequence analysis, a highly related gene, Scarf2, was found 15 kb downstream of Scarf on mouse chromosome 13. The functional Scarf Ca2+-binding domains suggest a role in the regulation of epidermal differentiation through the control of Ca2+-mediated signaling.