Serum Antibodies to the Deleted Dystrophin Sequence after Cardiac Transplantation in a Patient with Becker's Muscular Dystrophy

Abstract
Becker's muscular dystrophy and Duchenne's muscular dystrophy are allelic disorders caused by mutations of the dystrophin gene at Xp21.1 The 400-kd dystrophin is expressed most abundantly in the plasma membranes of skeletal and cardiac muscle fibers but is absent in patients with severe Duchenne's muscular dystrophy and in mdx mice. The expression of a truncated, “semifunctional” dystrophin molecule is usually associated with Becker's muscular dystrophy, which is milder than Duchenne's muscular dystrophy.2