Globotriaosylceramide (GL-3) Accumulation in the Renal Biopsy of a 1-year-old Patient with Fabry Disease and Ureteropelvic Junction Obstruction

Introduction: Fabry disease is a x-chromosome hereditary disease with an incidence of 1/40000 newborns. Nowadays it presents as much in males as in females and its first clinical symptoms are seen in pediatric patients. Patients have reduced or no activity of alpha-galactosidase which leads to progressive accumulation of GL-3 in lysosomes of all types of cells. This early deposition disrupts lysosomal function, leading to cell death, metabolic problems, vascular lesions, endothelial dysfunction, oxidative stress, alterations in autophagy tissue ischemia, and finally producing fibrosis in different tissues. On the other hand, ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJO) is the most frequent congenital anomaly of the urinary tract; with an incidence of 1 in 1000-2000 newborns.

A patient with antenatal diagnosis of Fabry disease and pre-natal diagnosis of UPJ is described. GL-3 deposits were found in all progeny of renal cells in the surgical biopsy.

Patient Report: Prenatal diagnosis of FD and severe left hydronephrosis (left renal pelvis 23 mm) He was born at term with adequate weight. Enzymatic activity of Alpha-Gal A was low and the molecular analysis confirmed the family’s mutation. Pyeloplasty was performed when he was 17 months old and, having obtained informed consent, a small piece of kidney was studied, showing evidence of characteristic GL-3 deposits in all cell types and showed podocyte “effacement”, a marker of injury and stress.

Conclusion: We demonstrate in this report that the deposits that lead to the sequence of a series of inflammation and fibrosis are present at a very early age. Based upon this finding, one can speculate about the prevention of late lesions with an early start of enzyme replacement therapy (ERT). Long term follow-up studies will be necessary to confirm this hypothesis.