Light and electron microscopy of skeletal muscle tissues of patients versus carriers of duchenne muscular dystrophy

ABSTRACT

The study included 8 male patients [5 - 10 years old]. With Duchenne muscular dystrophy [DMD], their female carriers [20 - 50 years old] and 3 healthy volunteers [2 males and 1 female, 20 - 40 years old]. Carriers were classified into obligate symptomatic [4 carriers], obligate asymptomatic [2 carriers] and possible carriers [2 carriers]. Muscle biopsy was taken from the quadriceps muscle of all the studied persons and prepared for both light and electron microscopy processes. Light and electron microscopy of muscle biopsies revealed marked dystrophic changes in all patients and mild dystrophic changes in 2 obligate symptomatic carriers, while some ultrastructural changes were detected by electron microscopy only in the other 2 obligate symptomatic carriers and one of the 2 obligate asymptomatic carriers. The other obligate asymptomatic carrier and the possible carriers showed no changes by both light and electron microscopy. So, we can conclude that carriers of DMD might show dystrophic changes by both light and electron microscopy. These changes were more frequent in obligate symptomatic carriers. Although, electron microscopy was more accurate than light microscopy in their detection, it could not detect all the carrier state