| First Author | Megeney LA | Year | 1999 |
| Journal | Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A | Volume | 96 |
| Issue | 1 | Pages | 220-5 |
| PubMed ID | 9874799 | Mgi Jnum | J:52248 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:1328682 | Doi | 10.1073/pnas.96.1.220 |
| Citation | Megeney LA, et al. (1999) Severe cardiomyopathy in mice lacking dystrophin and MyoD. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 96(1):220-5 |
| abstractText | The mdx mouse, a mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, carries a loss-of-function mutation in dystrophin, a component of the membrane-associated dystrophin-glycoprotein complex. Unlike humans, mdx mice rarely display cardiac abnormalities and exhibit dystrophic changes only in a small number of heavily used skeletal muscle groups. By contrast, mdx:MyoD-/- mice lacking dystrophin and the skeletal muscle-specific bHLH transcription factor MyoD display a severe skeletal myopathy leading to widespread dystrophic changes in skeletal muscle and premature death around 1 year of age. The severely increased phenotype of mdx:MyoD-/- muscle is a consequence of impaired muscle regeneration caused by enhanced satellite cell self-renewal. Here we report that mdx:MyoD-/- mice developed a severe cardiac myopathy with areas of necrosis associated with hypertrophied myocytes. Moreover, heart tissue from mdx:MyoD-/- mice exhibited constitutive activation of stress-activated signaling components, similar to in vitro models of cardiac myocyte adaptation. Taken together, these results support the hypothesis that the progression of skeletal muscle damage is a significant contributing factor leading to development of cardiomyopathy. |
