title: Assessing dystrophies and other muscle  diseases at the nanometer scale by atomic  force microscopy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Atomic force microscopy nanoindentation of myofibers was used to assess and quantitatively diagnose muscular dystrophies from human patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Myofibers were probed from fresh or frozen muscle biopsies from human dystrophic patients and healthy volunteers, as well as mice models, and Young's modulus stiffness values were determined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fibers displaying abnormally low mechanical stability were detected in biopsies from patients affected by 11 distinct muscle diseases, and Young's modulus values were commensurate to the severity of the disease. Abnormal myofiber resistance was also observed from consulting patients whose muscle condition could not be detected or unambiguously diagnosed otherwise.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study provides a proof-of-concept that atomic force microscopy yields a quantitative read-out of human muscle function from clinical biopsies, and that it may thereby complement current muscular dystrophy diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Molecular Biotechnology, Center for Biotechnology UNIL-EPFL & Institute of Biotechnology, University of Lausanne, Station 6, EPFL, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
authors.forename: Ruthger W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: van Zwieten
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Puttini
authors.forename: Małgorzata
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lekka
authors.forename: Guillaume
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Witz
authors.forename: Evelyne
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gicquel-Zouida
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Richard
authors.forename: Johannes A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Lobrinus
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chevalley
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Brune
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dietler
authors.forename: Andrzej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kulik
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kuntzer
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mermod
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002648:Child; D055119:Elastic Modulus; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force / Q000379:methods*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000473:pathology*; D009136:Muscular Dystrophies / Q000473:pathology*