Malika Ammam, PhD,  —

About 1 in 4 women whose sons have Duchenne or Becker muscular dystrophy were unaware of their carrier status and their own risk of cardiac problems, according to the results of a survey conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan. The study based on the survey, ”Knowledge of carrier status…

Researchers recently created a 3D image of the structure and composition of the skeletal muscle, including muscle affected by fibrosis, using multiple imaging techniques coupled with quantitative stereology. The study from a research team at UC San Diego and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, titled “High-resolution three-dimensional reconstruction of fibrotic skeletal muscle…

Researchers at the University of California investigated elevated levels of the protein sarcospan (SSPN) on skeletal muscle and pulmonary dysfunction in mice with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and found notable improvements in disease symptoms. The study, “High levels of sarcospan are well tolerated and act as a sarcolemmal stabilizer to…

Researchers at the University of Missouri and their colleagues at Carnegie Institution for Science recently identified the pathway of a key gene that regulates muscle fiber production, influences muscle stem cell pool size, and leads to accelerated muscle repair. The study, “Myofiber-specific TEAD1 overexpression drives satellite cell hyperplasia and counters pathological…

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) have succeeded in using high-resolution electron microscopy visualize the intracellular channel involved in the contraction of the skeletal muscle. The study, “Structural Basis for Gating and Activation of RyR1,” was published in Cell. A number of conditions are known to affect various body…

Idera Pharmaceuticals recently presented pre-clinical data regarding the gene-silencing mechanisms of its third generation antisense (3GA) technology platform, a potential therapeutic for diseases that include, but are not limited to, facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD). The presentation, “Precise excision of targeted RNA by third generation antisense (3GA) oligonucleotides” was made at the…

New research suggests that heart arrhythmia in myotonic dystrophy (DM) patients is caused by mutant RNA in the heart’s sodium channel. The study, which adds to the understanding of this symptom, was titled “Splicing misregulation of SCN5A contributes to cardiac-conduction delay and heart arrhythmia in myotonic dystrophy,” and published in …

University of Iowa researchers, working in a mouse model of muscular dystrophy (MD), have established new molecular signatures associated with membrane protein complexes that typify the disease, possibly opening the way to new and suitable therapies, according to the study, “Molecular signatures of membrane protein complexes underlying muscular dystrophy,” published in …

University of Nottingham researchers at the Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre (SPMIC) have been awarded a more than £1 million grant to develop a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique that uses the body’s natural sodium ions to provide more advanced pictures of healthy and diseased tissue. MRI is used to diagnose and…

In a recent paper published in Scientific Reports entitled “Deletion of integrin α7 subunit does not aggravate the phenotype of laminin α2 chain-deficient mice“, researchers from Sweden have revealed novel insights into the role of dystrophin related proteins towards the progression of muscular dystrophy (MD). Muscular dystrophy is…