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Derailing a Disease: Stem cells slow dogs’ muscular dystrophy

By Christen Brownlee

- More than 2 years ago

Muscle-producing stem cells injected into dogs with the equivalent of Duchenne muscular dystrophy significantly slowed the disease’s progression, researchers report.

MUSCLE MASS. Muscle cells from an untreated dog with muscular dystrophy form thin, irregular bundles (top), but a dog treated with donor stem cells has thick, healthy cell bundles (bottom). M. Sampaolesi

In people who have the incurable disease, abbreviated as DMD, muscles rapidly degenerate, and patients typically die in their late teens or early adulthood.