Electron microscopy of changes in lower extremity muscles in Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a genetic disease with a sex-linked pattern of inheritance. This disease is present at birth, becomes symptomatic during early childhood, leads to inability to walk near the end of the first decade, and usually results in death by the end of the second decade. In this study, the extensor digitorum longus and soleus muscles from genetically dystrophic mice were examined at the electron microscopic level. The authors describe their results and discuss how these findings might provide some insight into one of the mechanisms of fiber necrosis in Duchenne muscular dystrophy.