RefSeq (mRNA) is the official number of the most relevant gene product. Exon no. is the number of exons. mRNA (ORF) is the length of the mRNA and within brackets the length of the open reading frame also counting the first stop codon.

Disease symbol (OMIM) indicates the official name of the associated disorders, the symbol and the number as in the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (3). Inh indicates the disease inheritance AR = autosomal recessive; AD = autosomal dominat, XR = X-linked recessive, ecc. Variants (unique) is the number of total variants (unique) reported in the Leiden database (L) Human Genome Mutation Database (H) or other Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical specifica databases

(O). subst% indicates the percentage of substitutions of mutated alleles found in patients: this may be important to address the strategy for mutation scanning.

DMD is an X-linked recessive disorder, primarily characterized Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical by progressive muscle weakness and wasting. Mutations in dystrophin gene are the prime cause for muscle degeneration associated with DMD (1). Normally dystrophin interacts Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical with several members of the dystrophin glycoprotein complex, which forms a mechanical as well as signaling link from the extracellular matrix to the cytoskeleton (2). Mutations in dystrophin result in membrane damage, allowing massive infiltration of immune Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical cells, chronic inflammation, necrosis, and severe muscle degeneration (3). Normally, muscle cells possess the capacity to regenerate in response to injury signals (4), however, this ability is lost in DMD, presumably due to an exhaustion of satellite cells

during ongoing degeneration and regeneration cycles (5). Although dystrophin mutations represent the primary cause of DMD, it is the secondary processes Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical involving persistent inflammation and impaired regeneration that likely exacerbate disease progression (6). This results in chronic inflammation and severe skeletal muscle degeneration, where the extent of muscle fibrosis contributes to unless disease severity. Elevated numbers of inflammatory cells are known to be present at the sites of muscle injuries to interact with cytokine and growth factor signaling (7–9). It is evident that dystrophic click here muscles undergo increased oxidative stress and altered calcium homeostasis, which may contribute to myofiber loss by triggering both necrosis and apoptosis (10). In humans, DNA-fragmentation and expression of apoptosis-related proteins indicate that apoptosis plays a role in muscle degeneration and regeneration in muscular dystrophies (11). Muscle tissue repair is a complex biological process that crucially involves activation of stem cells.