Enzyme Studies in Muscular Dystrophy V

Abstract

The separate and concurrent effects of nutritional muscular dystrophy, induced by vitamin E-deficiency, and of denervation atrophy on wet weight, noncollagen protein nitrogen and deoxyribonucleic acid content, and on the activities of six acid hydrolases in the hamstring muscles of rabbits have been investigated. There are similarities in the patterns of increased acid hydrolase activity in both conditions, although in nutritional dystrophy the increments are much greater. Loss of muscle mass and noncollagen protein nitrogen content are much greater in denervation atrophy than in nutritional muscular dystrophy, whereas only in the latter condition is there a marked increase in deoxyribonucleic acid content. The effects of both conditions occurring simultaneously appear to be additive. The results also suggest that the increased activities of hydrolytic enzymes represent a common enzymatic mechanism that is involved in the loss of muscle mass and that most of the increments in hydrolase activity of dystrophic muscle originate from the pathological muscle cells themselves and may partially reflect attempts at regeneration.