Now in our 13th year of bringing you beautiful imagery from biomedical science every day

Search the archive of over 4000 images

Muscling In
02 January 2015

Muscling In

Around one in every 4,000 boys is born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy – a muscle wasting disease caused by an inherited genetic fault meaning they can't make a vital muscle protein called dystrophin. Right now there’s no cure, but one possible treatment involves boosting levels of a smaller muscle protein, utrophin, which can replace the missing dystrophin. To do this as effectively as possible, researchers are studying how utrophin levels are controlled in muscle cells. This is a slice through the calf muscle of a mouse with a faulty version of dystrophin, with different types of muscle fibres labelled red and green. These are the 'fast twitch' fibres, responsible for speed and strength, but they're abnormal in these animals. Although increasing utrophin isn't an effective treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy at the moment, understanding what's going on at a molecular level might lead to better utrophin-boosting therapies in the future.

Written by Kat Arney

Search The Archive

Submit An Image

Follow on Tumblr

Follow on Instagram

What is BPoD?

BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

Read More

BPoD is also available in Catalan at www.bpod.cat with translations by the University of Valencia.