This application is the second competitive renewal of this """"""""Improved Diagnostics of the Muscular Dystrophies"""""""" grant. During the first award, we showed that primary dystrophinopathies caused the majority of cases of muscular dystrophy, specifically about 80% of male dystrophy patients, and 10% of female dystrophy patients. During the tenure of the second award period (Dec 95-present), we begin dissecting the cause of muscular dystrophy in patients with normal dystrophin. During the last two years, we have investigated muscular dystrophies caused by alpha- sarcoglycan, beta-sarcoglycan, gamma-sarcoglycan, delta-sarcoglycan, merosin, integrin-alpha7, and calpain III. Despite the advances in our understanding of the molecular basis of muscular dystrophy made by our laboratory and others, we can identify the underlying molecular basis for only about 30% of autosomal recessive cases; 70% of patients with normal dystrophin can not be assigned a specific molecular diagnosis. Thus, considerable work remains to identify the many genes causing muscular dystrophy, and this is the focus of this competitive renewal. Our laboratory serves as the major referral site for molecular diagnostics of the muscular dystrophies. Through our for gratis analysis of muscle biopsies for primary dystrophinopathies, and more recently sarcoglycanopathies and merosin disorders, we have assembled what is likely the most extensive tissue-bank of frozen muscle tissue and clinical records of muscular dystrophy patients in the world. 3,049 flash-frozen muscle biopsies from muscular dystrophy patients have been received by the laboratory and fully characterized by the laboratory for dystrophin expression, histopathology, and, in hundreds of cases, gene mutations. It is these well-characterized muscle biopsy specimens which form the starting material for the molecular studies proposed in this renewal application. The goals of this current application are: 1. To continue our successful candidate gene analyses in our large cohort of muscular dystrophy patients; 2. To use the newly emerging GeneChip system (Affymetrix) to determine the changes in gene expression resulting from mutations in specific muscular dystrophy genes as a means to understanding disease progression and pathophysiology; and 3. To use the Gene Chips to identify novel muscular dystrophy genes through specific changes in gene expression. The proposed research will lead to improved understand the etiology of muscular dystrophies and improved diagnosis of these disorders. The results will enable genetic counseling of patients and their families, and should facilitate efforts directed towards rational therapies.
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