title: Altered muscle saccharide pattern in X-linked muscular dystrophy.
abstract: Five lectins were used as fluorescence microscopic markers for sugar residues in skeletal muscle. Biopsy specimens were taken from patients with X-linked muscular dystrophy (Duchenne's and Becker's), patients with other neuromuscular diseases, and normal controls. In both the controls and the pathologic samples, concanavalin A gave a bright fluorescence of the myofiber surface, whereas soybean agglutinin and Dolichos biflorus agglutinin fluorescence was negative. Peanut agglutinin and wheat germ agglutinin were more avidly bound to the sarcolemma and/or endomysial connective tissue in the patients with X-linked muscular dystrophy than in the controls or the patients with other conditions. The altered saccharide pattern may reflect either a myofiber membrane change or a specific mesenchymal reaction in the dystrophic muscle.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D050260:Carbohydrate Metabolism; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D006801:Humans; D037102:Lectins / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D008875:Middle Aged; D009132:Muscles / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D009136:Muscular Dystrophies / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D009468:Neuromuscular Diseases / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D014960:X Chromosome
chemical_list: D037102:Lectins