Search results for "muscular dystrophy"
showing 10 items of 103 documents
The Neuropsychological Profile of Infantile Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
2011
It has been shown that children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) exhibit specific cognitive deficits. However, the neuropsychological profile has not yet been fully characterized. In order to control for the contribution of motor impairments as a confounding variable that is usually present when assessing children with muscular pathologies, we compared children with DMD to a group of children with an autoimmune pathology that does not entail either brain or cognitive dysfunction but does imply motor impairment: juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). An extensive neuropsychological evaluation was administered, including intelligence, perception, language, memory and learning, attention, …
Mild Aerobic Exercise Training Hardly Affects the Diaphragm of mdx Mice
2016
In the mdx mice model of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), mild endurance exercise training positively affected limb skeletal muscles, whereas few and controversial data exist on the effects of training on the diaphragm. The diaphragm was examined in mdx (C57BL/10ScSn-Dmdmdx) and wild-type (WT, C57BL/10ScSc) mice under sedentary conditions (mdx-SD, WT-SD) and during mild exercise training (mdx-EX, WT-EX). At baseline, and after 30 and 45 days (training: 5 d/wk for 6 weeks), diaphragm muscle morphology and Cx39 protein were assessed. In addition, tissue levels of the chaperonins Hsp60 and Hsp70 and the p65 subunit of nuclear factor-kB (NF-kB) were measured in diaphragm, gastrocnemius, and q…
Altered electrical activity in colonic smooth muscle cells from dystrophic (mdx) mice
2001
Because the colon from dystrophic (mdx) mice shows an altered motor pattern, probably due to neural disorders, our aim was to examine the electrophysiological properties of muscle cells and the functionality of nitrergic transmission in circular muscle from normal and mdx colon. Normal colonic cells (resting membrane potential [RMP] about -50 mV) showed spontaneous hyperpolarizations (inhibitory junction potentials; IJPs) and cyclic slow depolarizations were sometimes recorded. Mdx colon had a depolarized RMP (about -36 mV) and spontaneous IJPs, but the cyclic activity was never observed. In the normal colon, Nomega-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) induced depolarization and abolished…
Absence of dysferlin alters myogenin expression and delays human muscle differentiation 'in vitro'
2006
Mutations in dysferlin cause a type of muscular dystrophy known as dysferlinopathy. Dysferlin may be involved in muscle repair and differentiation. We compared normal human skeletal muscle cultures expressing dysferlin with muscle cultures from dysferlinopathy patients. We quantified the fusion index of myoblasts as a measure of muscle development and conducted optic and electronic microscopy, immunofluorescence, Western blot, flow cytometry, and real-time PCR at different developmental stages. Short interference RNA was used to corroborate the results obtained in dysferlin-deficient cultures. A luciferase reporter assay was performed to study myogenin activity in dysferlin-deficient cultur…
In-frame deletion in the seventh immunoglobulin-like repeat of filamin C in a family with myofibrillar myopathy.
2009
Myofibrillar myopathies (MFMs) are an expanding and increasingly recognized group of neuromuscular disorders caused by mutations in DES, CRYAB, MYOT, and ZASP. The latest gene to be associated with MFM was FLNC; a p.W2710X mutation in the 24th immunoglobulin-like repeat of filamin C was shown to be the cause of a distinct type of MFM in several German families. We studied an International cohort of 46 patients from 39 families with clinically and myopathologically confirmed MFM, in which DES, CRYAB, MYOT, and ZASP mutations have been excluded. In patients from an unrelated family a 12-nucleotide deletion (c.2997_3008del) in FLNC resulting in a predicted in-frame four-residue deletion (p.Val…
Inhibition of autophagy rescues muscle atrophy in a LGMDD2 Drosophila model
2021
Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy D2 (LGMDD2) is an ultrarare autosomal dominant myopathy caused by mutation of the normal stop codon of the TNPO3 nuclear importin. The mutant protein carries a 15 amino acid C-terminal extension associated with pathogenicity. Here we report the first animal model of the disease by expressing the human mutant TNPO3 gene in Drosophila musculature or motor neurons and concomitantly silencing the endogenous expression of the fly protein ortholog. A similar genotype expressing wildtype TNPO3 served as a control. Phenotypes characterization revealed that mutant TNPO3 expression targeted at muscles or motor neurons caused LGMDD2-like phenotypes such as muscle degener…
Spontaneous mechanical activity and evoked responses in isolated gastric preparations from normal and dystrophic (mdx) mice
2002
This study examined whether alterations of the spontaneous and evoked mechanical activity are present in the stomach of the mdx mouse, the animal model for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The gastric mechanical activity from whole-organ of normal and mdx mice was recorded in vitro as changes of intraluminal pressure. All gastric preparations developed spontaneous tone and phasic contractions, although the tone of the mdx preparations was significantly greater. Atropine reduced the tone of the two preparations by the same degree. Nomega-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME) significantly increased the tone and spontaneous contractions only in the stomach from normal animals, but did not affect…
Macrophagic myofasciitis plus (distinct types of muscular dystrophy).
2009
Macrophagic myofasciitis (MMF) is a well-known lesion following vaccination with aluminium-containing vaccines. It has abundantly been reported in adults and several times in children, often in single patients or in rather small cohorts. Only few of these published reports on children have shown distinct myopathology of another neuromuscular disease except for MMF. Indications for biopsy often were nondescript clinical features in children, such as hypotonia or delay in motor development but, apparently, never that of suspected MMF. Thus, in previous reports as well as in our two patients, encountering MMF in the biopsied tissue specimens was coincidental. Our two unrelated patients with MM…
Reduction of mdx mouse muscle degeneration by low-intensity endurance exercise: a proteomic analysis in quadriceps muscle of exercised versus sedenta…
2015
By proteomic analysis we found an up-regulation of four carbonic anhydrase-3 (CA3) isoforms and a down-regulation of superoxide dismutase [Cu-Zn] (SODC) in quadriceps of sedentary X-linked muscular dystrophy (mdx) mice as compared with wild–type (WT) mice and the levels were significantly restored to WT values following low-intensity endurance exercise.
Deflazacort vs. prednisone in Duchenne muscular dystrophy: trends of an ongoing study
1995
Several studies have demonstrated the slowing effect of corticosteroids on the decline of muscle strength in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Deflazacort (DFC) is supposed to have fewer side effects than prednisone (PRED). An ongoing double blind multicenter study is comparing the effects and side effects of deflazacort (0.9 mg/kg/day) and prednisone (0.75 mg/kg/day) in DMD. This interim report includes data for 67 boys between age 5 years and loss of ambulation. Besides the common clinical and laboratory data for chronic corticoid treatment, motor performance has been tested. Interim results, 3-15 months after starting the medication, show some scattering but no grouping of data for all …