Isolation and Characterization of Primary DMD Pig Muscle Cells as an In Vitro Model for Preclinical Research on...

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is the most frequent genetic myopathy in childhood and leads to progressive muscle atrophy, weakness, and premature death. So far, there is no curative treatment available. Therapeutic development from bench to bedside takes time, and promising therapies need to be tested in suitable preclinical animal models prior to clinical trials in DMD patients. Existing mouse and dog models are limited with regard to the comparability of the clinical phenotype and the underlying mutation. Therefore, our group established a tailored large animal model of DMD, the DMD pig, mirroring the human size, anatomy, and physiology. For testing novel approaches, we developed a corresponding in vitro model, facilitating preclinical testing for toxicity, dosing, and efficacy, which we describe here. We first extracted primary muscle cells from wild-type and DMD pigs of different age groups and characterized those cells, then improved their differentiation process for identification of dystrophin and utrophin in myotubes. Our porcine in vitro model represents an important step for the development of novel therapeutic approaches, which should be validated further to minimize the need for living animals for bioassays, and thereby support the '3R' (replace, reduce, refine) principle, as fewer animals have to be raised and treated for preclinical trials.