Genetics of Non Syndromic Hearing Loss in the Republic of Macedonia

Hearing impairment is the most common sensory deficit in humans affecting 1 in 1000 newborns. When present in an infant, deafness may have dramatic effects on language acquisition, seriously compromising the quality of their life. Deafness is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors, with inherited causes as the most prominent etiological factor in deafness in developed countries. The genetic basis of hearing loss is complex with numerous loci and genes underlying hereditary sensoryneural non syndromic hearing loss (NSHL) in humans. Despite the wide functional heterogeneity of the genes, mutations in the GJB2 gene are found to be the most common cause of sporadic and recessive NSHL in many populations worldwide. Molecular characterization of deafness in the Republic of Macedonia was performed in 130 NSHL profoundly deaf children from different ethnic origins. Molecular studies included direct sequencing of the GJB2 gene and specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analyses for the del(GJB6-D13S1830) mutation. Five common mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations [A1555G, 961delT+ C(n), T1095C, C1494T and A827G] were also analyzed using the SNaPShot method. In preliminary studies, GJB2 gene mutations were found in 36.4% of analyzed patients, with predominance of 35delG in Macedonian and Albanian patients and W24X in Gypsy patients, respectively. No del(GJB6-D13S1830) mutation was found. None of the analyzed deafness-associated mutations in mtDNA were identified in the studied patients.