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Congenital nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (NDI) is a rare disease caused most often by mutations in the vasopressin V2 receptor (AVPR2). We studied a family which included a female patient with NDI with symptoms dating from infancy. The patient responded to large doses of desmopressin (dDAVP) which decreased urine volume from 10 to 4 I/day. Neither the parents nor the three sisters were polyuric. The patient was found to be a compound heterozygote for two novel recessive point mutations in the aquaporin-2 (AQP2) gene: L22V in exon 1 and C181W in exon 3. Residue Cys181 in AQP2 is the site for inhibition of water permeation by mercurial compounds and is located near to the NPA motif conserved in all aquaporins. Osmotic water permeability (Pf) in Xenopus oocytes injected with cRNA encoding C181W-AQP2 was not increased over water control, while expression of L22V cRNA increased the Pf to approximately 60% of that for wild-type AQP2. Co-injection of the mutant cRNAs with the wild-type cRNA did not affect the function of the wild-type AQP2. Immunolocalization of AQP2-transfected CHO cells showed that the C181W mutant had an endoplasmic reticulum-like intracellular distribution, whereas L22V and wild-type AQP2 showed endosome and plasma membrane staining. Water permeability assays showed a high Pf in cells expressing wild-type and L22V AQP2. This study indicates that AQP2 mutations can confer partially responsive NDI.

Congenital nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (DIR) is a rare X-linked hereditary disorder in which the renal collecting duct is unresponsive to arginine vasopressin; thus, the urine is consistently hypotonic to plasma. Recently, the association between the V2 receptor gene (AVPR2) and DIR has been proven. We have determined the gene sequence of four family members, from three generations, of a large North American family with CNDI who were originally part of the study used to formulate the Hopewell hypothesis. It had been proposed that a single DIR gene defect was introduced to North America by a member of an Ulster Scot kindred arriving on the ship Hopewell in 1761. DNA sequencing of the AVPR2 has identified a single base transversion from G-->A which changes tryptophan 71 to a stop codon in affected patients. This point mutation causes a truncation of the receptor leading to an essentially null allele. These data and other recently described mutations in the AVPR2 in North American pedigrees, descended from Ulster Scot ancestors and other origins, make the assertion of a founder effect proposed in the Hopewell hypothesis invalid.