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Hydrops-ectopic calcification-"moth-eaten" (HEM) or Greenberg skeletal dysplasia is an autosomal recessive chondrodystrophy with a lethal course, characterized by fetal hydrops, short limbs, and abnormal chondro-osseous calcification. We found elevated levels of cholesta-8,14-dien-3β-ol in cultured skin fibroblasts of an 18-wk-old fetus with HEM, compatible with a deficiency of the cholesterol biosynthetic enzyme 3β-hydroxysterol Δ¹⁴-reductase. Sequence analysis of two candidate genes encoding putative human sterol Δ¹⁴-reductases (TM7SF2 and LBR) identified a homozygous 1599–1605TCTTCTA→CTAGAAG substitution in exon 13 of the LBR gene encoding the lamin B receptor, which results in a truncated protein. Functional complementation of the HEM cells by transfection with control LBR cDNA confirmed that LBR encoded the defective sterol Δ¹⁴-reductase. Mutations in LBR recently have been …