WT1 complete gonadal dysgenesis with membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis: case series and literature review

Background Intronic WT1 mutations are usually causative of Frasier syndrome with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis as the characteristic nephropathy. Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis is not commonly associated with disorders of sex development but has been recently identified as a WT1 -associated nephropathy, but usually in cases of exonic mutations in either isolated Wilms tumor or Denys-Drash syndrome. Methods The clinical and genetic data from 3 individuals are reported. Results This report describes the kidney manifestations in 3 individuals from 2 unrelated families with Frasier syndrome intronic WT1 mutations, noting that 2 of the 3 individuals have histologically confirmed membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis. Conclusions These case reports support expansion of the clinical spectrum of the kidney phenotypes associated with Frasier syndrome providing evidence of an association between WT1 mutation and an immune complex-related membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis. Graphical abstract A higher resolution version of the Graphical abstract is available as Supplementary information