Metabolic and Nutritional Studies in Mice With a Hereditary Myopathy (Dystrophia Muscularis)

Abstract

Nutritional, chemical and metabolic studies have been carried out on hereditarily muscular dystrophic mice and their littermate controls. Certain characteristics of the dystrophic syndrome which may not have been emphasized previously are described: denudation of the eyelids, periocular inflammation, tremors and an unusual reflex involving the head and neck, inflammation of the penis, and diminished bone growth. The dystrophic mice consumed, on the average, more food per day per unit body weight than their normal controls. Parenteral administration of vitamins A, D, E, the B-complex vitamins and ascorbic acid failed to reverse any of the dystrophic syndrome in eight dystrophic mice. The metabolic rate was normal (per unit weight basis) as measured by the rate of CO₂ production; similarily, acetate-1-C¹⁴ was oxidized to C¹⁴O₂ at the same rate in normal and dystrophic mice. Finally, levels of plasma glucose, cholesterol, protein-bound I¹³¹, and of liver cholesterol were not significantly different in a small group of normal and dystrophic mice.