Dystrophin constitutes 5% of membrane cytoskeleton in skeletal muscle.
Dystrophin, which is absent in skeletal muscle of Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients, has not been considered to play a major structural role in the cell membrane of skeletal muscle because of its low abundance (approximately 0.002% of total muscle protein). Here, we have determined the relative abundance of dystrophin in a membrane cytoskeleton preparation and found that dystrophin constitutes approximately 5% of the total membrane cytoskeleton fraction of skeletal muscle sarcolemma. In addition, dystrophin can be removed from sarcolemma by alkaline treatment. Thus, our results have demonstrated that dystrophin is a major component of the subsarcolemmal cytoskeleton in skeletal muscle and suggest that dystrophin could play a major structural role in the cell membrane of skeletal muscle.
Ohlendieck
K
K
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City 52242.
Campbell
K P
KP
D000818:Animals; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D016189:Dystrophin / Q000032:analysis*; D015151:Immunoblotting; D051379:Mice; D008970:Molecular Weight; D009132:Muscles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000473:pathology; D009137:Muscular Dystrophy, Animal / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D011817:Rabbits; D012508:Sarcolemma / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure
D016189:Dystrophin