Here we present evidence for a 4.8kb transcript from the DMD locus which is ubiquitously expressed but is particularly abundant in Schwannoma cells where dystrophincould not be detected.
Histological examination of skeletal muscle revealed myopathic changes and immunostaining with anti-dystrophin antiserum demonstrated a mosaic pattern which are compatible with the observations in carriers of DMD.
We have investigated the possibility that a deficiency of a dystrophin-associated protein could be the cause of severe childhood autosomal recessive muscular dystrophy (SCARMD) with a DMD-like phenotype.
We have developed a fast and accurate PCR-based linkage and carrier detection protocol for families of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD)/Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD) patients with or without detectable deletions of the dystrophin gene, using fluorescent PCR products analyzed on an automated sequencer.
A total of 56 Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patients and 11 Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD) patients was analyzed by extended "multiplex" amplification of the DMD/BMD gene; deletions were found in 60% of these patients.
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to study the presence of gene deletion (the most prominent type of mutations) in some families afflicted by Duchenne muscular dystrophy/Becker muscular dystrophy (DMD/BMD).
For example, the map suggests that the adrenal hypoplasia congenita and glycerol kinase genes are physically close to each other, are within 1-2 Mb of the telomeric end of the Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) gene, and are nearer to the DMD locus than to the more distal marker DXS28 (C7).
Rapid advances in the molecular genetics of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and the discovery and localization of the gene product dystrophin has brought new hope that successful treatment for this disease may not be too far away.
We identified a premature chain termination mutation in two brothers with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and correlated the mutation in one of the brothers with immunologic detection of dystrophin in skeletal muscle.
However, the relatively large size of the gene and the high frequency of recombination and mutation events within the dystrophin locus continue to pose difficulties in the genetic counselling and prenatal diagnosis of DMD, and render the conclusions of molecular analysis less clear cut.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and the allelic milder form of Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD) are caused by mutations of the dystrophin gene on the short arm of the X chromosome.
A Duchenne muscular dystrophy patient who displayed near-normal dystrophin staining at the sarcolemma with N-terminal, but not with C-terminal, anti-dystrophin monoclonal antibodies was found to have a frameshift deletion of exons 42 and 43.