Relationship between Utrophin and Regenerating Muscle Fibers in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a dystrophinopathy, and its associated gene is located on Xp21. Moreover, utrophin, a recently identified structural homologue of dystrophin is reported to be up-regulated in DMD.

In order to investigate the association between utrophin and muscle regeneration in DMD, an immunohistochemical study using antibodies to utrophin, dystrophin, vimentin and desmin was carried out in 17 cases of DMD, 3 cases of polymyositis and 1 case of dermatomyositis.

Dystrophin was negative in almost all cases of DMD, but positive in all cases of inflammatory myopathy (IM). Utrophin was positive in 94.0% of DMD and in 75.0% of IM. 36.4% of the myofibers were positive in DMD, as compared to 10.5% in IM (p=0.001). In both groups, utrophin positivity was present most commonly in small regenerating fibers (p=0.001, 0.013). Vimentin and desmin were intensely positive in regenerating fibers in all cases of DMD and IM. 34.4% and 35.4% of myofibers were positive for vimentin and desmin in DMD, as compared to 21.8% and 20.9% in IM (p=0.001, 0.001). In both groups, vimentin and desmin positivity were present most commonly in small regenerating fibers (p=0.001, 0.001). The staining intensities of utrophin, vimentin and desmin were also higher in small regenerating fibers.

These results show that utrophin up-regulation is regeneration-associated, and that it is proportional to the quantity of regenerating myofibers, but is not specific for DMD.