Abstract

BackgroundDuchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an X-linked inherited myopathy that causes progressive skeletal and cardiac muscle disease. Heart lesions were described in the earliest DMD reports, and cardiomyopathy is now the leading cause of death. However, diagnostics and treatment for cardiomyopathy have lagged behind those for appendicular and respiratory skeletal muscle disease. Most animal model studies have been done in the mdx mouse, which has a relatively mild form of cardiomyopathy. Dogs with the genetically homologous condition, Golden Retriever muscular dystrophy (GRMD), develop progressive cardiomyopathy analogous to that seen in DMD. Previous descriptive studies of GRMD cardiomyopathy have mostly been limited to selective sampling of the hearts from young dogs.Methods and ResultsWe systematically assessed cardiac lesions in 31 GRMD and carrier dogs aged 3 to 76 months and a separate cohort of 2–10-year-old normal hounds. Both semi-quantitative lesion scoring and quantitation of the cross-sectional area of fibrosis distinguished dogs with GRMD disease from normal dogs. The carriers generally had intermediate involvement but had even greater fibrosis than GRMD dogs. Fatty infiltration was the most prominent feature in some older GRMD dogs. Vascular hypertrophy was increased in GRMD dogs and correlated positively with lesion severity. Purkinje fiber vacuolation was also increased but did not correlate with lesion severity. Histopathologic changes correlated with late gadolinium enhancement on cardiac MRI.ConclusionThese features are generally compatible with those of DMD and further validate GRMD as a useful model to study cardiomyopathy pathogenesis and treatment. Additionally, the nature of some degenerative lesions suggests that functional hypoxia or non-thrombotic ischemia may contribute to disease progression.

Highlights

  • Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and Golden Retriever muscular dystrophy (GRMD) are genetically homologous, phenotypically analogous degenerative muscle diseases caused by mutations in the DMD gene, which encodes the dystrophin protein [1, 2]

  • Myocardial disease in DMD is classically defined as dilated cardiomyopathy with more pronounced left ventricle (LV) vs. right ventricle (RV) lesions and functional changes [4,5,6]

  • Like the previous more limited studies, we did not see an overall increase in heart weight (HW)/BW ratio typically associated with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

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Summary

Introduction

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and Golden Retriever muscular dystrophy (GRMD) are genetically homologous, phenotypically analogous degenerative muscle diseases caused by mutations in the DMD gene, which encodes the dystrophin protein [1, 2]. While some studies have shown that skeletal and cardiac muscle functional deficits track together, others have demonstrated variable progression [5, 6, 14,15,16]. This potential for discordance has clinical significance. Dogs with the genetically homologous condition, Golden Retriever muscular dystrophy (GRMD), develop progressive cardiomyopathy analogous to that seen in DMD. Previous descriptive studies of GRMD cardiomyopathy have mostly been limited to selective sampling of the hearts from young dogs

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