Muscular Dystrophy

Muscular Dystrophy


Scientists have been struggling with the cause, treatment of, and cure for Muscular dystrophy since its discovery in 1886, by Dr. Guillaume Duchenne.   Muscular dystrophy is a hereditary disease, affecting thousands of people every year, two-thirds being children between the age of birth through adolescents.   However, Muscular dystrophy can occur with no family history of the disease.  


Muscular dystrophy is a degenerating disease, in which the skeletal muscles degenerate, lose their strength, and cause increasing disability and deformity.   Muscles attached to the bones through tendons are responsible for movement in the human body, however, in muscular dystrophy the muscles become progressively weak.   As the muscle fibers become extremely weak they start to die and are replaced by connective tissue.   The connective tissue is fibrous and fatty rather than muscular.   These replacement fibers are normally found in skin and scar tissue and are not capable of movement, which cause the muscles to become even weaker.


While muscular dystrophy continues to be a debilitating disease, there are a variety of recognizable types, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, or pseudohypertrophic, being the most common.   In this disease, the muscles involved are in the upper thigh and pelvis.   The disease strikes in early childhood, usually between the ages of three and five years of age.   This form is genetic, transmitted from mothers who are known to be carriers of the defective gene.   Although rare, females with a history of ovarian dysgenesis have been known to develop symptoms of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.  


Duchenne muscular dystrophy is caused by a defect in the dystrophin gene that is vital for healthy muscles.   The abnormality causes little or no dystrophin protein to be produced which is critical for cell membrane growth.   A direct result of fluid leakage from outside of the cell membrane into the muscle is weakness in the...