Microarray analysis of mdx mice expressing high levels of utrophin: therapeutic implications for DMD

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a fatal muscle wasting disorder caused by dystrophin deficiency. Previous work suggested that increased expression of the dystrophin-related protein utrophin in the mdx mouse model of DMD can prevent dystrophic pathophysiology. Physiological tests showed that the transgenic mouse muscle functioned in a way similar to normal muscle. More recently, it has become possible to analyse disease pathways using microarrays, a sensitive method to evaluate the efficacy of a therapeutic approach. We thus examined the gene expression profile of mdx mouse muscle compared to normal mouse muscle and compared the data with that obtained from the transgenic line expressing utrophin. The data confirm that the expression of utrophin in the mdx mouse muscle results in a gene expression profile virtually identical to that seen for the normal mouse. This study confirms that a strategy to up-regulate utrophin is likely to be effective in preventing the disease.

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Baban D, Davies KE