Ullrich congenit
al muscul
ar dystrophy (UCMD) is clinic
ally ch
ar
acterized by muscle we
akness, proxim
al contr
actures
and dist
al hyperl
axity
and morphologic
ally br
anded by
absence or reduction of coll
agen VI (ColVI), in muscle
and in cultured fibrobl
asts. The ColVI defect is gener
ally rel
ated to COL6 genes mut
ations, however UCDM p
atients without COL6 mut
ations h
ave been recently reported, suggesting genetic heterogeneity. We report comp
ar
ative morphologic
al findings between
a UCMD p
atient h
arboring
a homozygous
COL6A2 mut
ation
and
a p
atient with
a typic
al UCMD phenotype in which mut
ations in COL6 genes were excluded. The p
atient with no mut
ations in COL6 genes exhibited
a p
arti
al ColVI defect, which w
as only detected close to the b
as
al membr
ane of myofibers.
We describe how confocal microscopy and rotary-shadowing electron microscopy may be useful to identify a secondary ColVI defect.