Shar-pei Wrinkles and Fevers Linked to Single Gene

Researchers are now reporting that the same gene mutation is responsible for both thewrinklesand the fever.

“All shar-pei dogs have this mutation that causes the wrinkles, but the more copies they have, the higher the risk to have this fever,” said Mia Olsson, a doctoral student at Uppsala University in Sweden who worked on the study. Theresearch appears in the journal PLoS Genetics.

It was already known that the wrinkles were a result of excess production of a substance called hyaluronic acid distributed throughout the dogs’ skin. That excess is likely caused by to the overactivation of a gene calledhyaluronan synthase 2.

Dogs that carry multiple mutations of the gene seem predisposed toperiodic fever, Ms. Olsson and her colleagues reported. Although the fever is short-lived, it can be intense and frequent, and cause inflammation.

With more information, breeders might be able to avoid breeding shar-peis that have duplications of the gene mutation, Ms. Olsson said.

“Our highest priority right now is to see if there’s some way to create some kind of test or tool to reduce the number of dogs with the fevers,” she said.

The research was conducted with the help and support of breeders in the United States, Sweden and Spain, who have an interest in improving shar-peis’ health.

The fever closely resembles certain periodic fevers that humans inherit, and studying the mutation in the dogs could help human geneticists develop treatments.

The most common periodic fever among humans is known asfamilial Mediterranean fever. It tends to affect people of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern descent, and there is no cure for the disorder.

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