These studies demonstrate that DCM mutations in δ-sarcoglycan can exert a dominant negative effect on dystrophin-glycoprotein complex function leading to myocardial mechanical instability that may underlie the pathogenesis of δ-sarcoglycan-associated DCM.
The hamster strain CHF147 presents a progressive dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) due to a large deletion of the delta-sarcoglycan gene that leads to heart failure.
TO-2 strain hamsters with congenital DCM show similar clinical and genetic backgrounds to human cases that have defects in the delta-sarcoglycan (delta-SG) gene.
These data suggest that delta-sarcoglycan is a disease-causing gene responsible for familial and idiopathic DCM and lend support to our "final common pathway" hypothesis that DCM is a cytoskeletalopathy.