Definition for Chediak-Higashi disease

Chédiak-Higashi syndrome is a rare childhood autosomal recessive disorder that affects multiple systems of the body, which arises from a mutation in the lysosomal trafficking regulator gene, LYST. more

Chédiak-Higashi syndrome is a rare childhood autosomal recessive disorder that affects multiple systems of the body, which arises from a mutation in the lysosomal trafficking regulator gene, LYST. It is a disease with impaired bacteriolysis due to failure of phagolysosome formation. As a result of disordered intracellular trafficking there is impaired lysosome degranulation with phagosomes, so phagocytosed bacteria are not destroyed by the lysosome's enzymes. In addition secretion of lytic secretory granules by cytotoxic T cells is also affected. The disease is characterised by large lysosome vesicles in phagocytes, which thus have poor bactericidal function, leading to susceptibility to infections, abnormalities in nuclear structure of leukocytes, anaemia, and hepatomegaly. less