Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is caused by a lack of dystrophin, a protein that keeps muscle fibers intact. Without it, fibers tear and need constant repair by stem cells, which eventually fail, leading to muscle loss. Our lab studies how DMD affects different muscles and maps variation within single muscles to guide targeted stem cell therapies to restore muscle function.
reNEW research
We map gene activity across a whole muscle, sectioned from knee to ankle, to see how muscular dystrophy reshapes it. Because a single biopsy cannot capture the complexity of an entire tissue, we compare muscles of healthy and dystrophic mice along their full length, pairing gene activity with tissue staining. We found that healthy muscle is regionalized: sprint fibers at the ends, endurance fibers in the center. We ask if and how dystrophy disrupts this spatial organization to inform targeted therapeutic strategies.
Image description
The soleus blooms in red (Myh7); in green, laminin outlines all fibers; central nuclei (magenta) mark regeneration.
Credits
Dr. Paola Pisterzi, Postdoc, Geijsen Lab, reNEW Leiden.
