Familial partial lipodystrophy is a metabolic disorder characterized by abnormal subcutaneous adipose tissue distribution beginning in late childhood or early adult life. Affected individuals gradually lose fat from the upper and lower extremities and the gluteal and truncal regions, resulting in a muscular appearance with prominent superficial veins. In some patients, adipose tissue accumulates on the face and neck, causing a double chin, fat neck, or cushingoid appearance. Metabolic abnormalities include insulin-resistant diabetes mellitus with acanthosis nigricans and hypertriglyceridemia; hirsutism and menstrual abnormalities occur infrequently. Familial partial lipodystrophy may also be referred to as lipoatrophic diabetes mellitus, but the essential feature is loss of subcutaneous fat (review by Garg, 2004). The disorder may be misdiagnosed as Cushing disease (see 219080) (Kobberling and Dunnigan, 1986; Garg, 2004). Genetic Heterogeneity of Familial Partial Lipodystrophy Familial partial lipodystrophy is a clinically and genetically heterogeneous disorder. Types 1 and 2 were originally described as clinical subtypes: type 1 (FPLD1; 608600), characterized by loss of subcutaneous fat confined to the limbs (Kobberling et al., 1975), and FPLD2, characterized by loss of subcutaneous fat from the limbs and trunk (Dunnigan et al., 1974; Kobberling and Dunnigan, 1986). No genetic basis for FPLD1 has yet been delineated. FPLD3 (604367) is caused by mutation in the PPARG gene (601487) on chromosome 3p25; FPLD4 (613877) is caused by mutation in the PLIN1 gene (170290) on chromosome 15q26; FPLD5 (615238) is caused by mutation in the CIDEC gene (612120) on chromosome 3p25; FPLD6 (615980) is caused by mutation in the LIPE gene (151750) on chromosome 19q13; and FPLD7 (606721) is caused by mutation in the CAV1 gene (601047) on chromosome 7q31.