Both Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD) are caused by mutations of the X-linked dystrophin gene. BMD patients are less affected clinically than DMD patients. We present five patients with a diagnosis of BMD. First, two identical twins, with a deletion of exon 48 of the dystrophin gene, who experienced prominent muscle cramps from the age of three. The histopat...

We have previously reported a dystrophin-related locus (DMDL for Duchenne muscular dystrophy-like) on human chromosome 6 that maps close to the dy mutation on mouse chromosome 10. Here we show that this gene is expressed in a wide range of tissues at varying levels. The transcript is particularly abundant in several human fetal tissues, including heart, placenta, and intestine. Studies with ant...

Utrophin is a 400 kDa autosomal homolog of dystrophin and a component of the submembranous cytoskeleton. While multiple dystrophin isoforms have been identified along with alternatively spliced products, to date only two different mRNA species of utrophin have been identified. To determine the degree of evolutionary conservation between dystrophin and utrophin isoforms, we have compared their e...

A nonsense mutation c.4250T>A (p.Leu1417X) in the dystrophin gene of a patient with an intermediate phenotype of muscular dystrophy induces partial in-frame skipping of exon 31. On the basis of UV cross-linking assays and pull-down analysis, we present evidence that the skipping of this exon is because of the creation of an exonic splicing silencer, which acts as a highly specific binding site ...

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...

Objective: To correlate the site and size of dystrophin gene deletion with the clinical picture in patients with dystrophinopathies. Design: The dystrophin gene is one of the largest known genes. More than half of the dystrophinopathy cases are associated with intrageneic deletions. The importance of the study arises from the fact that dystrophin cDNA probes provide a direct method of genetic d...

Antisense oligonucleotide-mediated alternative splicing has great potential for treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) caused by mutations within nonessential regions of the dystrophin gene. We have recently shown in the dystrophic mdx mouse that exon 23, bearing a nonsense mutation, can be skipped after intramuscular injection of a specific 2'-O-methyl phosphorothioate antisense oligor...

The 427-kDa protein dystrophin is expressed in striated muscle where it physically links the interior of muscle fibers to the extracellular matrix. A range of mutations in the DMD gene encoding dystrophin lead to a severe muscular dystrophy known as Duchenne (DMD) or a typically milder form known as Becker (BMD). Patients with nonsense mutations in dystrophin are specifically targeted by stop c...

The Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene gives rise to transcripts of several lengths. These mRNAs differ in their coding content and tissue distribution. The 14 kb mRNA encodes dystrophin, a 427 kDa protein found in muscle and brain, and the short transcripts described encode DP71, a 77 kDa protein found in various organs. These short transcripts have many features common to the deduced primary st...

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a severe neuromuscular (NM) disease, considered as the most common and rapidly evolutive muscular dystrophy. The incidence of this X-linked hereditary disease is approximately 1/3000 [1] to 3500 [2] male births. DMD is caused by mutation of the dystrophin gene which leads to the absence of dystrophin in muscle tissue [1] Missing dystrophin precludes normal m...