Two siblings with typical features of the Cockayne syndrome were studied at autopsy. Many glomeruli revealed a paucity of capillary loops and had thickened capillary walls. Some glomeruli with advanced lesions showed collapse of the glomerular tufts or complete hyalinization. Atrophy of tubules and interstitial fibrosis were also observed. There were no significant arteriosclerotic changes in the vessels. Ultrastructural studies demonstrated thickened glomerular basement membranes with bends and folds. These histopathological findings are different to those previously reported with the exception of the 1966 report by Ohno and Hirooka.

Three males, 4 years, '6 years and 5 years of age, with typical Cockayne's syndrome were described.

Recently, we established a new category of photosensitive disorder termed UVs syndrome. Cells from patients with UVs syndrome have a similar UV sensitivity as xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) cells, but have a normal level of unscheduled DNA synthesis (UDS) unlike XP. UVs syndrome is distinct from Cockayne syndrome (CS) or XP including XP variant (XP-V), as determined by studies of genetic factors using cell fusion, microinjection, and postreplication repair assays. In this study, we identified three Japanese patients with UVs syndrome: an 11-year-old girl, a 17-year-old male, and an 8-year-old boy. The first two patients were siblings, while the third was a case from a different family. All of these patients exhibited acute recurrent sunburn. Common clinical manifestations of these patients were slight erythema and dryness, a number of freckles on sun-exposed areas, and slight telangiectasia only seen on the cheek and nose. Patient 3 showed a lowered minimal erythema dose between 280 and 300 nm. The patients' fibroblasts showed similar characteristics to those in CS, such as UV sensitivity, and a failure of RNA synthesis (RRS) after UV irradiation, despite a normal level of UDS. Thus, UVs syndrome is a new hereditary photosensitive disorder with clinical manifestations similar to a mild form of XP but showing the cellular characteristics of CS.

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