Methylmalonic acidemia (MMA), one of the most common inborn errors of organic acid metabolism, is heterogeneous in etiology and clinical manifestations. Affected patients with cb1A, cb1B and mut classes of MMA are medically fragile and can suffer from complications such as metabolic stroke or infarction of the basal ganglia, pancreatitis, end stage renal failure, growth impairment, osteoporosis, and developmental delay. The frequency of these complications and their precipitants remain undefined. Furthermore, current treatment protocol outcomes have continued to demonstrate substantial morbidity and mortality in the patient population. Rarely, solid organ transplantation (liver, and/or kidney) has been used to treat patients. Disordered intracellular metabolism of vitamin B12 produces another group of disorders that feature methylmalonic acidemia as well (hyper)homocysteinemia. These conditions are named after the corresponding cellular complementation class - cobalamin C (cb1C), D and F - and are also heterogenous, clinically and biochemically. The genetic disorders underlying cb1E and cb1G feature an isolated impairment of the activity of methionine synthase, a critical enzyme involved in the conversion of homocysteine to methionine. Lastly, a group of patients who have increased methylmalonic acid and/or homocysteine in the blood caused by mutation(s) in unknown genes exist.

In this protocol, we will clinically evaluate patients with methymalonic acidemia and cobalamin metabolic defects. Routine inpatient admissions will last 4-5 days and involve urine collection, blood drawing, ophthalmologic examination, radiological procedures, MRI/MRS, skin biopsies in some, and developmental testing. In a subset of patients who have or will receive renal, hepato- or hepato-renal transplants or have an unusual variant or clinical course and have MMA, a lumbar puncture to examine CSF metabolites will be performed. In this small group of patients, CSF metabolite monitoring may be used to adjust MMA therapy.

The study objectives will be to further delineate the spectrum of phenotypes associated with these enzymopathies, query for genotype/enzymatic/phenotype correlations and search for new genes in rare families that have evidence for an unknown class of methylmalonic acidemia and/or homocysteinemia. The population will consist of patients previously evaluated at NIH, physician referrals, and families directed to the study from clinicaltrials.gov as well as the Organic Acid Association. All patients will be evaluated at the NIH clinical center. Outcome measures will largely be descriptive and encompass correlations between clinical, biochemical and molecular parameters.