The phenotypic spectrum of lysosomal acid lipase (LAL) deficiency ranges from the infantile-onset form (Wolman disease) to later-onset forms collectively known as cholesterol ester storage disease (CESD). Wolman disease is characterized by infantile-onset malabsorption that results in malnutrition, storage of cholesterol esters and triglycerides in hepatic macrophages that results in hepatomegaly and liver disease, and adrenal gland calcification that results in adrenal cortical insufficiency. Unless successfully treated with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), infants with classic Wolman disease do not survive beyond age one year. CESD may present in childhood in a manner similar to Wolman disease or later in life with such findings as serum lipid abnormalities, hepatosplenomegaly, and/or elevated liver enzymes long before a diagnosis is made. The morbidity of late-onset CESD results from atherosclerosis (coronary artery disease, stroke), liver disease (e.g., altered liver function ± jaundice, steatosis, fibrosis, cirrhosis and related complications of esophageal varices, and/or liver failure), complications of secondary hypersplenism (i.e., anemia and/or thrombocytopenia), and/or malabsorption. Individuals with CESD may have a normal life span depending on the severity of disease manifestations.

Wilson disease is a disorder of copper metabolism that, when untreated, can present with hepatic, neurologic, or psychiatric disturbances – or a combination of these – in individuals ages three years to older than 70 years. Manifestations in untreated individuals vary among and within families. Liver disease can include recurrent jaundice, simple acute self-limited hepatitis-like illness, autoimmune-type hepatitis, fulminant hepatic failure, or chronic liver disease. Neurologic presentations can include dysarthria, movement disorders (tremors, involuntary movements, chorea, choreoathetosis), dystonia (mask-like facies, rigidity, gait disturbance, pseudobulbar involvement), dysautonomia, seizures, sleep disorders, or insomnia. Psychiatric disturbances can include depression, bipolar disorder / bipolar spectrum disorder, neurotic behaviors, personality changes, or psychosis. Other multisystem involvement can include the eye (Kayser-Fleischer rings), hemolytic anemia, the kidneys, the endocrine glands, and the heart.

The phenotypic spectrum of lysosomal acid lipase (LAL) deficiency ranges from the infantile-onset form (Wolman disease) to later-onset forms collectively known as cholesterol ester storage disease (CESD). Wolman disease is characterized by infantile-onset malabsorption that results in malnutrition, storage of cholesterol esters and triglycerides in hepatic macrophages that results in hepatomegaly and liver disease, and adrenal gland calcification that results in adrenal cortical insufficiency. Unless successfully treated with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), infants with classic Wolman disease do not survive beyond age one year. CESD may present in childhood in a manner similar to Wolman disease or later in life with such findings as serum lipid abnormalities, hepatosplenomegaly, and/or elevated liver enzymes long before a diagnosis is made. The morbidity of late-onset CESD results from atherosclerosis (coronary artery disease, stroke), liver disease (e.g., altered liver function ± jaundice, steatosis, fibrosis, cirrhosis and related complications of esophageal varices, and/or liver failure), complications of secondary hypersplenism (i.e., anemia and/or thrombocytopenia), and/or malabsorption. Individuals with CESD may have a normal life span depending on the severity of disease manifestations.

POLG-related disorders comprise a continuum of overlapping phenotypes that were clinically defined before the molecular basis was known. POLG-related disorders can therefore be considered an overlapping spectrum of disease presenting from early childhood to late adulthood. The age of onset broadly correlates with the clinical phenotype. In individuals with early-onset disease (prior to age 12 years), liver involvement, feeding difficulties, seizures, hypotonia, and muscle weakness are the most common clinical features. This group has the worst prognosis. In the juvenile/adult-onset form (age 12-40 years), disease is typically characterized by peripheral neuropathy, ataxia, seizures, stroke-like episodes, and, in individuals with longer survival, progressive external ophthalmoplegia (PEO). This group generally has a better prognosis than the early-onset group. Late-onset disease (after age 40 years) is characterized by ptosis and PEO, with additional features such as peripheral neuropathy, ataxia, and muscle weakness. This group overall has the best prognosis.

Untreated tyrosinemia type I usually presents either in young infants with severe liver involvement or later in the first year with liver dysfunction and renal tubular dysfunction associated with growth failure and rickets. Untreated children may have repeated, often unrecognized, neurologic crises lasting one to seven days that can include change in mental status, abdominal pain, peripheral neuropathy, and/or respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation. Death in the untreated child usually occurs before age ten years, typically from liver failure, neurologic crisis, or hepatocellular carcinoma. Combined treatment with nitisinone and a low-tyrosine diet has resulted in a greater than 90% survival rate, normal growth, improved liver function, prevention of cirrhosis, correction of renal tubular acidosis, and improvement in secondary rickets.

MPV17-related mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) maintenance defect presents in the vast majority of affected individuals as an early-onset encephalohepatopathic (hepatocerebral) disease that is typically associated with mtDNA depletion, particularly in the liver. A later-onset neuromyopathic disease characterized by myopathy and neuropathy, and associated with multiple mtDNA deletions in muscle, has also rarely been described. MPV17-related mtDNA maintenance defect, encephalohepatopathic form is characterized by: Hepatic manifestations (liver dysfunction that typically progresses to liver failure, cholestasis, hepatomegaly, and steatosis); Neurologic involvement (developmental delay, hypotonia, microcephaly, and motor and sensory peripheral neuropathy); Gastrointestinal manifestations (gastrointestinal dysmotility, feeding difficulties, and failure to thrive); and Metabolic derangements (lactic acidosis and hypoglycemia). Less frequent manifestations include renal tubulopathy, nephrocalcinosis, and hypoparathyroidism. Progressive liver disease often leads to death in infancy or early childhood. Hepatocellular carcinoma has been reported.

Infants with untreated TRMU deficiency, a mitochondrial disorder, typically become symptomatic between ages two and four months with transient acute liver dysfunction (including elevated transaminases, abnormal synthetic functions, and/or hepatomegaly), metabolic derangements (severe persistent lactic acidosis, hypoglycemia, hyperammonemia), and poor weight gain. With proper supportive treatment (but not disease-targeted therapy), abnormal liver findings (including coagulopathy) improve or normalize. Likewise, metabolic derangements improve. However, other manifestations typical of a mitochondrial disorder such as persistent lactic acidosis, neurologic dysfunction (including developmental delay / intellectual disability and seizures), cardiomyopathy, and respiratory failure may persist or develop or over time.

A rare, genetic, parenchymal hepatic disease characterized by acute liver failure, that occurs in the first year of life, which manifests with failure to thrive, hypotonia, moderate global developmental delay, seizures, abnormal liver function tests, microcytic anemia and elevated serum lactate. Other associated features include hepatosteatosis and fibrosis, abnormal brain morphology, and renal tubulopathy. Minor illness exacerbates deterioration of liver failure.

Mitochondrial complex III deficiency nuclear type 6 (MC3DN6) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by mitochondrial dysfunction. It is characterized by onset in early childhood of episodic acute lactic acidosis, ketoacidosis, and insulin-responsive hyperglycemia, usually associated with infection. Laboratory studies show decreased activity of mitochondrial complex III. Psychomotor development is normal (summary by Gaignard et al., 2013). For a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of mitochondrial complex III deficiency, see MC3DN1 (124000).

Infantile liver failure syndrome-2 (ILFS2) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of acute liver failure during intercurrent febrile illness. Patients first present in infancy or early childhood, and there is complete recovery between episodes with conservative treatment (summary by Haack et al., 2015). For a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of infantile liver failure syndrome, see ILFS1 (615438).

Infantile liver failure syndrome-3 is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of acute liver failure during intercurrent febrile illness. Patients first present in infancy or early childhood, and there usually is complete recovery between episodes with conservative treatment. Affected individuals also have skeletal anomalies of the vertebral bodies and femoral heads (summary by Cousin et al., 2019). For a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of infantile liver failure syndrome, see ILFS1 (615438).

Immunodeficiency-91 and hyperinflammation (IMD91) is an autosomal recessive complex immunologic disorder characterized by both immunodeficiency and recurrent infections, often to viruses or mycobacteria, as well as by hyperinflammation with systemic involvement. Affected individuals present in infancy with variable features, including fever, infection, thrombocytopenia, renal or hepatic dysfunction, recurrent infections, or seizures. Most patients eventually develop hepatic or renal failure, compromised neurologic function, lymphadenopathy or hepatosplenomegaly, and multiorgan failure resulting in death. More variable features may include intermittent monocytosis, features of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), and serologic evidence of hyperinflammation. The disorder is thought to result from dysregulation of the interferon response to viral stimulation in the innate immune system (summary by Le Voyer et al., 2021; Vavassori et al., 2021).