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Concept
Lipid storage disorder
Summary
A lipid storage disorder (or lipidosis) is any one of a group of inherited metabolic disorders in which harmful amounts of fats or lipids accumulate in some body cells and tissues. People with these disorders either do not produce enough of one of the enzymes needed to metabolize and break down lipids or, they produce enzymes that do not work properly. Over time, the buildup of fats may cause permanent cellular and tissue damage, particularly in the brain, peripheral nervous system, liver, spleen, and bone marrow.
Inside cells under normal conditions, lysosomes convert, or metabolize, lipids and proteins into smaller components to provide energy for the body.
Disorders that store this intracellular material are part of the lysosomal storage diseases family of disorders.
Sphingolipidosis
Many lipid storage disorders can be classified into the subgroup of sphingolipidoses, as they relate to sphingolipid metabolism. Members of this group include Niemann-Pick disease, Fabry disease, Krabbe disease, Gaucher disease, Tay–Sachs disease, metachromatic leukodystrophy, multiple sulfatase deficiency, and Farber disease. They are generally inherited in an autosomal recessive fashion, but Fabry disease is X-linked. Taken together, sphingolipidoses have an incidence of approximately 1 in 10,000. Enzyme replacement therapy is available mainly to treat Fabry disease and Gaucher disease and people with these types of sphingolipidoses may live well into adulthood. Generally, the other types are fatal by age 1 to 5 years for infantile forms, but progression may be mild for juvenile-onset or adult-onset forms.
Alternatively, some of the sphingolipidoses may be classified into either GM1 gangliosidoses or GM2 gangliosidoses. Tay–Sachs disease belongs to the latter.
Other lipid storage disorders that generally are not classified as sphingolipidoses include fucosidosis, Schindler disease, and Wolman disease.
Lipid storage diseases can be inherited two ways:
Autosomal recessive inheritance occurs when both parents carry and pass on a copy of the faulty gene, but neither parent show signs and symptoms of the condition and is not affected by the disorder.
Official source
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