Diagnosis and genetics of Marfan syndrome

Introduction: Marfan syndrome (MFS) is a connective tissue disorder with highly variable features in cardiovascular, ocular and skeletal systems. MFS is generally caused by one of the 2900-plus described different genetic mutations in the fibrillin-1 gene (FBN1). Areas covered: By revising the Ghent criteria in 2010, more weight has been given to genetic testing in the diagnosis of MFS. We provide an overview of correlations between different mutation types and clinical MFS features by using the Universal Mutation Database (UMD). Expert opinion: In this paper, we classified FBN1 mutations based on their action on DNA level and we found the following genotype-phenotype correlations: i) cysteine mutations are associated with ectopia lentis; ii) introduction of a cysteine leads to less severe involvement of cardiovascular and skeletal system; iii) whole gene deletions and premature termination codon (PTC) mutations are associated with increased skeletal and cardiovascular involvement, but lower prevalence of ectopia lentis and iv) intronic mutations lead to MFS by exon skipping, small insertions/deletions and PTC mutations. Classification based on mutation effect at protein level (reduced vs truncated/deformed fibrillin-1) may partly explain genotype-phenotype association and warrants further investigation for individualized prognosis and treatment.