The gene for autosomal dominant "benign" familial neonatal convulsions, a transient, primary epilepsy of infancy, has recently been assigned to chromosome 20q. To determine whether this disorder is genetically heterogeneous, we performed linkage analysis in two previously unreported pedigrees with benign familial neonatal convulsions in which clinical heterogeneity was evident. There were 14 affected persons in the first family, and none had seizures (febrile or afebrile) after the age of 2 months. The second family had 13 affected individuals and 2 obligate carriers; seizures frequently did not remit until 6 to 24 months, febrile convulsions occurred in at least 2 patients, apparent audiogenic seizures occurred in 4 patients, and 1 individual had refractory epilepsy until late adolescence. Linkage studies with the chromosome 20 markers D20S19 and D20S20 were performed in both families. The resulting data favored linkage of the disease and marker loci in Family 2 by a maximum odds ratio of 45:1 at 6% recombination. In Family 1, however, the odds were greater than 20,000:1 against linkage at 10% recombination or less. We conclude that the syndrome of benign familial neonatal convulsions is clinically and genetically heterogeneous. Further study will be necessary to clarify the relationship between phenotype and genotype in this disorder.

Objetives: Assess the role of the catalase antioxidant enzyme in the vascular calcification process associated with chronic renal failure (CRF) and its effect on bone mass. Material and methods: Wild type C57/BL6J mice (WT) and transgenic mice (TG) were used, that overexpress the catalase enzyme, to which CRF was induced. Control WT and TG mice were used in simulated intervention. After 16 weeks, the mice were sacrificed, with serum samples taken for biochemical markers as well as residual pieces of kidney, aorta and tibias. An in vitro model of primary culture of smooth vascular muscle cells (SVMC) taken from the WT and TG aorta which underwent eight days of 3 mM phosphorus and 2 mM calcium calcifying medium. Results: A significant increase in Runx2 gene expression, calcium renal deposit and bone structure deterioration at trabecular level was only detected in WT mice with CRF. This was not observed in TG mice with CRF. Only in the case of WT mice SVMC, did added calcification medium raise calcium levels, proteic Runx2 expression and the reactive oxygen species of mitochondria with low catalase enzyme. Conclusions: Calcifying catalase over-expression was observed in both in vivo and in vitro, with in vivo showing that this reduction was accompanied by an improvement in bone parameters under study.

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