All muscular dystrophies are characterized by progressive muscle wasting, despite being a genetically heterogeneous group of inherited disorders. Reginald Bittner and colleagues now propose that genomic instability (which is more commonly associated with cancer) may be a unifying pathomechanism in genetically distinct muscular dystrophies.Schmidt et al. observed that different mouse models of muscular dystrophy, which harboured mutations in some of the most commonly mutated muscular dystrophy-associated genes - dystrophin (Dmd), dysferlin (Dysf), calpain 3 (Capn3) or like-glycosyltransferase (Large) - were prone to develop age-related mixed rhabdomyosarcomas, fibrosarcomas and liposarcomas. Furthermore, Dmd~-/-Dysf~-/-and Dmd~-/-Capn3~-/- double-knockout mice suffered from accelerated sarcomagenesis, prompting the authors to suggest that muscular dystrophy-associated genes may act as tumour suppressors.
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