Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) affects approximately 1 in 3,500 live male births [1]. It is caused by a large variety of mutations in the dystrophin gene. Because of these mutations, the body can no longer make dystrophin which is a protein important for stabilisation of the muscle cell during a contraction. Without dystrophin, muscle cells are damaged and slowly replaced by fat and scar tis...

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is caused by the absence of the protein dystrophin in the muscle cells. The function of dystrophin is still not clear. For enabling study of the molecular function of dystrophin, we used small inhibitory RNA (siRNA) for suppressing the expression of the protein in two muscle cell lines and achieved a quantitative knockdown. We applied two-dimensional differenti...

A benign Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD) patient with a marked decrease in dystrophin exhibited remarkable expression of dystrophin-related protein (DRP) on most of the muscle cell membrane. A phenotypic Duchenne muscular dystrophy patient with a truncated form of dystrophin exhibited no DRP expression on the muscle cell membrane except for the neuromuscular junction. Increased DRP expression m...

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is caused mostly by internal deletions in the gene for dystrophin, a protein essential for maintaining muscle cell membrane integrity. These deletions abrogate the reading frame and the lack of dystrophin results in progressive muscle deterioration. DMD patients experience progressive loss of ambulation, followed by a need for assisted ventilation, and eventual...

Mutations in the human dystrophin gene cause the Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophies. The Dystrophin protein provides a structural link between the muscle cytoskeleton and extracellular matrix to maintain muscle integrity. Recently, Dystrophin has also been found to act as a scaffold for several signaling molecules, but the roles of dystrophin-mediated signaling pathways remain unknown. To...

The most common types of dystrophin gene mutations that cause Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) are large deletions that result in a shift of the translational reading frame. Such mutations generally lead to a complete absence of dystrophin protein in the muscle cells of affected individuals. Any therapeutic modality that could restore the reading frame would have the potential to substantially...

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), the commonest X-linked disorder, is a progressive, eventually fatal disease. With the advent of molecular genetics, the Duchenne gene and its protein product, dystrophin, have been characterised. Molecular diagnosis of DMD, identification of carriers and antenatal diagnosis are now possible. We describe here the use, in a Malaysian boy with DMD, of a recent in...

X-linked dilated cardiomyopathy (XLDC) is a familial heart disease presenting in young males as a rapidly progressive congestive heart failure, without clinical signs of skeletal myopathy. This condition has recently been linked to the dystrophin gene in some families and deletions encompassing the genomic region coding for the first muscle exon have been detected. In order to identify the defe...