This is a cross section of a skeletal muscle biopsy from a middle-aged male with increasing muscular weakness. This is an immunoperoxidase stain with antibody to dystrophin. Dystrophin is a protein normally located adjacent to the sarcolemmal membrane. In this case, there is decreased brown reaction product around the muscle fibers, indicating a dystrophin deficiency. Thus, this is a case of Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD), which is a milder form of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) in which no dystrophin would be seen. Both diseases have an X-linked inheritance pattern. Persons with DMD present with marked muscular weakness early in childhood and rarely survive to adulthood. Persons with BMD may present in childhood or adolescence with muscular weakness, but many have a nearly normal life span.
| Our winner is: Michelle Coquet of Bordeaux, FRANCE
| |
Return to the C.O.W. main menu.