Ocular manifestations of renal ciliopathies

Renal ciliopathies are a common cause of kidney failure in children and adults, and this study reviewed their ocular associations.

Genes affected in renal ciliopathies were identified from the Genomics England Panels.

Ocular associations were identified from Medline and OMIM, and the genes additionally examined for expression in the human retina ( https://www.proteinatlas.org/humanproteome/tissue ) and for an ocular phenotype in mouse models ( http://www.informatics.jax.org/ ).

Eighty-two of the 86 pediatric-onset renal ciliopathies (95%) have an ocular phenotype, including inherited retinal degeneration, oculomotor disorders, and coloboma.

Diseases associated with pathogenic variants in ANK6, MAPKBP1, NEK8 , and TCTN1 have no reported ocular manifestations, as well as low retinal expression and no ocular features in mouse models.

Ocular abnormalities are not associated with the most common adult-onset "cystic" kidney diseases, namely, autosomal dominant (AD) polycystic kidney disease and the AD tubulointerstitial kidney diseases (ADTKD).

However, other kidney syndromes with cysts have ocular features including papillorenal syndrome (optic disc dysplasia), Hereditary Angiopathy Nephropathy, Aneurysms and muscle Cramps (HANAC) (tortuous retinal vessels), tuberous sclerosis (retinal hamartomas), von Hippel-Lindau syndrome (retinal hemangiomas), and Alport syndrome (lenticonus, fleck retinopathy).

Ocular abnormalities are associated with many pediatric-onset renal ciliopathies but are uncommon in adult-onset cystic kidney disease.

However the demonstration of ocular manifestations may be helpful diagnostically and the features may require monitoring or treatment.