Molecular diagnosis of inheritable neuromuscular disorders. Part I: Genetic determinants of inherited disease and their laboratory detection

Murine muscle engineered from dermal precursors: an in vitro model for skeletal muscle generation, degeneration, and fatty infiltration

Skeletal muscle can be engineered by converting dermal precursors into muscle progenitors and differentiated myocytes. However, the efficiency of muscle development remains relatively low and it is currently unclear if this is due to poor characterization of the myogenic precursors, the protocols used for cell differentiation, or a combination of both. In this study, we characterized myogenic precursors present in murine dermospheres, and evaluated mature myotubes grown in a novel three-dimensional culture system. After 5-7 days of differentiation, we observed isolated, twitching myotubes followed by spontaneous contractions of the entire tissue-engineered muscle construct on an extracellular matrix (ECM). In vitro engineered myofibers expressed canonical muscle markers and exhibited a skeletal (not cardiac) muscle ultrastructure, with numerous striations and the presence of aligned, enlarged mitochondria, intertwined with sarcoplasmic reticula (SR). Engineered myofibers exhibited Na(+)- and Ca(2+)-dependent inward currents upon acetylcholine (ACh) stimulation and tetrodotoxin-sensitive spontaneous action potentials. Moreover, ACh, nicotine, and caffeine elicited cytosolic Ca(2+) transients; fiber contractions coupled to these Ca(2+) transients suggest that Ca(2+) entry is activating calcium-induced calcium release from the SR. Blockade by d-tubocurarine of ACh-elicited inward currents and Ca(2+) transients suggests nicotinic receptor involvement. Interestingly, after 1 month, engineered muscle constructs showed progressive degradation of the myofibers concomitant with fatty infiltration, paralleling the natural course of muscular degeneration. We conclude that mature myofibers may be differentiated on the ECM from myogenic precursor cells present in murine dermospheres, in an in vitro system that mimics some characteristics found in aging and muscular degeneration.

Clinical and molecular analysis of X-linked Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1 in Spanish population

From 1995 to 2004, 979 families with hereditary peripheral neuropathy were referred to the Genetic Diagnosis Center. Using single-strand conformation analysis (SSCA), the connexin 32 gene was analysed in all the patients from 498 families with sporadic or dominant inheritance with no male-to-male transmission and absence of the 17p2 duplication or deletion. Affected males had pes cavus, distal leg weakness, muscular distal atrophy, areflexia and distal sensory loss. The 106 families in which SSCA revealed abnormal migration electrophoresis were directly sequenced. We found 34 families (59 patients) with mutations in connexin 32 gene. In electrophysiological studies, 58.8% families presented slow and 14.7% intermediate nerve conduction velocities. Molecular findings revealed that codon 164 (29.4 +/- 15.3%) and the second extracellular (EC2) domain (44.1 +/- 16.6%) were the most frequently affected codon and domain of the connexin 32. Six novel mutations, Leu39fs, Glu47Gly, His153fs, Cys179Tyr, Cys201Phe and Ser211fs, were found in our study.