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Yale researchers' finding offers clue to new treatment for muscular dystrophy

9 Apr 2013

Muscular dystrophy is the name of a collection of diseases that weaken muscles and cause muscle cells and tissue to die. The most common form is called Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). There is no known cure.

But now a lab at Yale headed by Anton Bennett, associate professor of pharmacology at the School of Medicine, has identified a protein that controls how muscle cells function. The team's study, in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, offers hope of future therapies that may inhibit the protein and prevent muscle degeneration. A summary of Bennett's study can be read online.

Left: blue stain shows cell nuclei; pink stain shows cells dividing. Right: Regeneration of muscle stem cells through suppression of the protein, which may help prevent DMD.

Source: Yale University