Phenotypic Analysis of Neurofilament Light Chain E397K Mutant in Cultured Cells

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) is blown as one of the inherited disorder of peripheral nervous system. Recently, it was found that point mutations in the neurofilament light subunit (NF-L) gene cause CMT. Neurofilaments (NFs) are heteropolymers consist of NF-L, NF-M and NF-H. To assess the relationship between CMT and NF-L mutation in cellular level, we performed phenotypic analysis of the mutant NF-L (E397K) using cultured cell lines. Vimentin-deficient human adrenal carcinoma SW13 (Vim-) cells have a potential to form the intermediate filaments when the cells are expressing both NF-L and NF-M. Our results show that co-expression of wild type NF-L with NF-M showed intermediate filament formation in SW13 (Vim-) cells, while E397K with NF-M did not. This result means that E397K mutant lost its ability to form the intermediate filament in vivo, and further suggests that the E397K mutation is closely related to CMT.