Summary: Purpose and Methods: One hundred and ninetytwo fragile X male patients were investigated for seizures and EEG findings, 168 in a retrospective and 24 in another prospective study, to characterize the natural history of seizures, epilepsy, and EEG abnormalities in males with this syndrome.Results: Seizures were documented in 35 (18.2%) of 192 patients; they never started before the age of 2 years or after the age of 9 years. Seizures were frequently of the complex partial type and less frequently of the partial motor and generalized type. Seizures involving frontal and temporal lobes were commonly seen and were usually well controlled by anticonvulsants. I n the majority of young fragile X patients studied, an age-related paroxysmal EEG pattern was found, which showed neurophysiologic characteristics very similar to those of the centrotemporal spikes.Conclusions: These findings confirm that fragile X syndrome can be considered a genetic model of epilepcy.

Summary:Purpose: To evaluate their susceptibility to audiogenic seizures, five groups of knockout mice with various forms of fragile X genetic involvement [hemizygous males (n = 46), and homozygous (n = 38) and heterozygous females (n = 45), and their normal male (n = 45) and female (n = 52) littermates] were studied.Methods: All mouse groups were tested at ages 17, 22, 35, and 45 days. Audiogenic seizure susceptibility was scored, and the analysis of variance was used for the evaluation of the effects of age and genetic condition on seizure severity score (SSS).Results: All groups of knockout fragile X mice exhibited SSSs significantly higher than those observed in their wild-type littermates; among knockout mice, hemizygous males and homozygous females showed the highest SSSs. Hemizygous males showed higher SSSs with increasing age, from 17 to 45 days; homozygous females showed a peak at age 22 days, followed by a decrease; finally, heterozygous females had their highest SSSs at age 17 days.Conclusions: This study demonstrates that an increased susceptibility to audiogenic seizures is present in fragile X knockout mice at all the ages tested. These results support the validity of this animal model also for epilepsy and seizures in the human fragile X syndrome.

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Celiac disease (CD), a malabsorption disorder of the small intestine, results from ingestion of gluten. The HLA risk factors involved in CD are well known but do not explain the entire genetic susceptibility. To determine the localization of other genetic risk factors, a systematic screening of the genome has been undertaken. The typing information of 281 markers on 110 affected sib pairs and their parents was used to test linkage. Systematic linkage analysis was first performed on 39 pairs in which both sibs had a symptomatic form of CD. Replication of the regions of interest was then carried out on 71 pairs in which one sib had a symptomatic form and the other a silent form of CD. In addition to the HLA loci, our study suggests that a risk factor in 5qter is involved in both forms of CD (symptomatic and silent). Furthermore, a factor on 11qter possibly differentiates the two forms. In contrast, none of the regions recently published was confirmed by the present screening.