Congenital Secondary Hypothyroidism Due to a Mutation C105Vfs114X Thyrotropin-β Mutation: Genetic Study of Five Unrelated Families from Switzerland and Argentina

We identified five patients with congenital secondary hypothyroidism with isolated thyrotropin (TSH) deficiency originating from three and two unrelated Argentinean and Swiss families, respectively. The affected patients presented with both low TSH as well as low thyroid hormone levels. Further, TSH-releasing hormone (TRH) stimulation failed to increase serum TSH, whereas prolactin increased adequately. These affected children were homozygous for a 1-bp deletion (822delT) in the TSH-β subunit gene leading to a cysteine 105 to valine conversion (C105V) and to a frameshift with a premature stop codon at position 114 (C105Vfs114X). In a total of 22 families five different mutations located within the coding region of the TSH-β subunit gene responsible for congenital secondary hypothyroidism have been reported so far (E12X; G29R; Q49X; IVS2 +5, G → A; C105Vfs114X). Importantly, out of 13 families, including our five families, the C105Vfs114X mutation has been described in 12 unrelated and non-consanguineous families, whereas the remaining four TSH-β subunit gene mutations have been described in consanguineous families only. Therefore the C105Vfs114X mutation within the TSH-β subunit gene is the most frequent alteration causing congenital secondary hypothyroidism (13 of 22; 59%) and occurs mainly in unrelated and non-consanguineous families (12 of 13; 92%). As we could exclude a common ancestry by microsatellite marker analysis in our five independent families we concluded that the codon 105 in the TSH-β subunit gene might be a "hot spot," although a founder effect has been reported in certain cases clustered in a highly specific and restricted geographical area.