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Dystrophin expression in the developing conduction system of the human heart
Author(s) -
Ginjaar Ieke B.,
Virágh Szabolcs,
Markman Marry W. M.,
Van Ommen GertJan B.,
Moorman Antoon F. M.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
microscopy research and technique
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.536
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1097-0029
pISSN - 1059-910X
DOI - 10.1002/jemt.1070300603
Subject(s) - dystrophin , expression (computer science) , human heart , microbiology and biotechnology , electrical conduction system of the heart , biology , duchenne muscular dystrophy , computational biology , computer science , medicine , genetics , electrocardiography , programming language
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is frequently associated with myocardial involvement. Dystrophin, the DMD protein, is found at the plasmamembrane of striated muscle fibers. Although dystrophin is missing in most or all muscle fibers of DMD patients, cardiac muscle is not as severely affected as skeletal muscle. Therefore it is of great importance to study the expression of dystrophin in normal cardiac muscle. We performed immunohistochemical studies and examined cardiac muscle of fetuses of 8 to 13 weeks of development on dystrophin expression. At these stages dystrophin is observed in the myocytes of the developing ventricular conduction system and in the atrial cardiomyocytes. Dystrophin was absent from the heart of a 12‐week‐old DMD fetus. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.