Muscular dystrophy and muscle cell death in normal foetal development

Abstract

ALTHOUGH the application of modern biochemical, morphological and experimental techniques to the study of muscle disease has greatly extended our knowledge of myopathic processes, the cause of muscular dystrophy continues to elude investigators. McComas et al.¹ have suggested that the motor neurones rather than the skeletal muscle fibres are primarily affected but this has been seriously questioned^2,3. My own hypothesis is based on the concept of embryonic cell death and stems from observations that I, as well as others, have made on the death of muscle cells in normal human foetuses^4,5.