ABSENCE OF LAMININ ALPHA-1 CHAIN IN THE SKELETAL-MUSCLE OF DYSTROPHICDY DY MICE/

In Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and laminin alpha 2 defective con genital muscular dystrophies (CMD) there are reports of an induction o f laminin al chain in regenerating muscle fibers. These studies are ba sed on immunohistochemistry data with one monoclonal antibody alone. B ased on these data we sought to establish if the laminin oct chain is induced in the muscle of dy/dy mice. We found no evidence of induction of laminin oct chain protein or mRNA in dystrophic dy/dy skeletal mus cle fibers as determined by immunohistochemistry, Western blotting, No rthern blotting, or PCR analysis. Our data point to the need for addit ional immunological reagents specific for human laminin-al to resolve whether the conflicting data on laminin-alpha 1 distribution in human and mouse tissues is due to species differences or, alternatively, due to differences in reagent specificity. Our data might be important wh en designing therapy strategies for CMD. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, I nc.