Introduction: Sensitive, non-invasive techniques are needed that can provide biomarkers of disease status and the effects of therapy in muscular dystrophy.
Methods: We evaluated electrical impedance myography (EIM) to serve in this role by studying 2-month-old and 18-month-old mdx and wild-type (WT) animals (10 animals in each of 4 groups).
Results: Marked differences were observed in EIM values between mdx and WT animals; the differences were more pronounced between the older age groups (e.g., reactance of 92.6 ± 4.3 Ω for mdx animals vs. 130 ± 4.1 Ω for WT animals, P<0.001). In addition, in vivo EIM parameters correlated significantly with the extent of connective tissue deposition in the mdx animals.
Conclusions: EIM has the potential to serve as a valuable non-invasive method for evaluating muscular dystrophy. It can be a useful biomarker to assist with therapeutic testing in both pre-clinical and clinical studies.
Keywords: Duchenne muscular dystrophy; biomarker; connective tissue; electrical impedance; mdx mouse.
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