This review summarizes the data on 278 different mutations found to date in the genes for types I, II, III, IX, X, and XI collagens from 317 apparently unrelated patients. A majority (217 mutations; 78% of the total) of the mutations are single-base and either change the codon of a critical amino acid (63%), or lead to abnormal RNA splicing (13%). Most of the amino acid substitutions are those of a bulkier amino acid for the obligatory glycine of the repeating -Gly-X-Y- sequence of the collagen triple helix (155; 56%). Altogether, 26 different mutations (9.4% of the mutations) occur in more than one unrelated individual. The 65 patients in whom the 26 mutations were characterized constitute almost one-fifth (20.5%) of the 317 patients analyzed. The mutations in type I, II, III, IX, X, and XI collagens cause a wide spectrum of diseases of bone, cartilage, and blood vessels, including osteogenesis imperfecta, a variety of chondrodysplasias, types IV and VII of the Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, and, rarely, some forms of osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and familial aneurysms.
