Researchers Report That Tβ4 Increases Skeletal Muscle And May Have A Role In The Treatment Of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Main Category: Muscular Dystrophy / ALS
Article Date: 08 Feb 2010 - 3:00 PDT

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Regenerx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE Amex:RGN) announced today that a research team in Washington, D.C. has found that dystrophin-deficient Mdx mice, treated twice a week for six months with Tβ4, showed a significant increase in skeletal muscle regenerating fibers compared to untreated mice. No effects related to muscle function or fibrosis and no adverse reactions were observed in the mice. Mdx mice are used as models for Duchenne muscular dystrophy to evaluate potential therapeutic compounds. According to the research team, "In exercised dystrophin deficient mice, chronic administration of Tβ4 increased the number of regenerating fibers in skeletal muscle and could have a potential role in the treatment of skeletal muscle disease in Duchenne muscular dystrophy." Because Tβ4 stimulates cell migration and anti-apoptosis pathways in skeletal muscle cultures, these data further suggest a role for Tβ4 in muscle degenerative diseases and injury.

"This study is particularly important as it provides the first direct correlation of gene expression data with in vivo administration and histological localization of Tβ4 in muscle tissue," stated Dr. Allan L. Goldstein, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, DC, and RegeneRx's chief scientific advisor.

The research team was led by Dr. Christopher Spurney, Division of Cardiology, Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC. The paper was published in PLoS One (a National Institutes of Health, peer-reviewed online journal), 2010 Jan 29; 5:1-5.

Source
RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.

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