Winchester syndrome

Winchester syndrome is a rare congenital connective tissue disease described in 1969, of which the main characteristics are short stature, marked contractures of joints, opacities in the cornea, a coarse face, dissolution of the carpal and tarsal bones (in the hands and feet, respectively) and osteoporosis. Appearances resemble rheumatoid arthritis. Increased uronic acid is demonstrated in cultured fibroblasts from the skin and to a lesser degree in both parents. Despite initial tests not showing increased mucopolysaccharide excretion, the disease was regarded as a mucopolysaccharidosis.

In 2005, a patient with Winchester syndrome was shown to have mutations in the matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2) gene. A 2006 study showed other mutations in the same gene, and observed that Winchester syndrome is probably part of a continuum that also includes Torg syndrome and nodulosis-arthropathy-osteolysis syndrome.