Craniomandibular osteopathy (CMO) in West Highland White Terriers, Cairn Terriers and Scottish Terriers

Craniomandibular osteopathy (CMO) is a very painful inherited disease characterized by extensive development changes in the bones of the jaw (mainly of the mandible) and mandibular joints in young dogs. This extensive growth sometimes affects skull bones and more rarely long bones of the legs.

The typical symptoms of this disease include jaw swelling, jaw pain when chewing, loss of appetite, drooling, difficulty opening mouth, periodic fewer and dysphagia.   CMO symptoms begin between 4 and 8 months of age and the conditions generally disappear when the dog has finished growing.

The disease is caused by mutation c.1332C>T in SLC37A2-gene. The SLC37A2-gene is glucose-6-phosphate transporter that is produced in many tissues, mainly in bone tissues, e.g. in osteoclasts.

The mode of inheritance of CMO was supposed to be autosomal recessive. However, new studies have proven that the heterozygotes may also suffer from this disease, but the symptoms are milder. The mode of inheritance is rather autosomal dominant with incomplete penetrance.

This disease occurs in several dog breed and it is most frequent in West Highland White Terriers, Cairn Terriers and Scottish Terriers.

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References:

Hytönen MK, Arumilli M, Lappalainen AK, Owczarek-Lipska M, Jagannathan V, Hundi S, et al. (2016) Molecular Characterization of Three Canine Models of Human Rare Bone Diseases: Caffey, van den Ende-Gupta, and Raine Syndromes. PLoS Genet 12(5): e1006037. doi:10.1371/journal. pgen.1006037