Description
Lipodystrophies resemble syndromes of disturbed adipocyte biology or development and severe congenital forms (CGL) lack adipose tissue. The ubiquitous immediate-early gene c-fos is one essential transcription factor to initiate adipocyte differentiation. In a CGL patient we identified a single homozygous point mutation in the promoter of c-fos gene. The mutation facilitates the formation of a novel specific protein/ DNA complex and ubiquitously reduces basal and inducible c-fos transcription activity.