Cartilage hair hypoplasia (CHH) or McKusick type metaphyseal chondrodysplasia (MCD) (OMIM # 250250) is due to either the homozygous or compound heterozygous mutations in the nuclear encoded, non-coding RNA gene RMRP.
We examined 12 Japanese patients with metaphyseal chondrodysplasia (MCD) for mutations in the ribonuclease mitochondrial RNA processing gene (RMRP), and identified four novel mutations in two patients with typical and atypical cartilage-hair hypoplasia (CHH), a form of MCD characterized by extra-skeletal manifestations including hypoplastic hair and defective immunity.