Oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy

Oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD) can be autosomal dominant neuromuscular disease or autosomal recessive which appears in early middle age (fifth decade). The most common inheritance of OPMD is autosomal dominant, which means only one copy of the mutated gene needs to be present in each cell. Children of an affected parent have a 50% chance of inheriting the mutant gene. Generally, autosomal dominant inheritance have a strong family tie. Less commonly, OPMD can be inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern, which means that two copies of the mutated gene need to be present in each cell, both parents need to be carriers of the mutated gene, and usually show no signs or symptoms. The PABPN1 mutation contains a GCG trinucleotide repeat at the 5' end of the coding region, and expansion of this repeat from the normal 6 copies to 8-13 copies which then leads to autosomal dominant oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD) disease.