Successful myoblast transplantation in fibrotic muscles: No increased impairment by the connective tissue

Backgrounds. Implantation of normal myoblasts may eventually be a treatment for inherited myopathies such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Methods. We report a comparative study of the effectiveness on myoblast implantation: (1) into the muscles of young (2 months) mdx mice nonirradiated and noninjected with notexin (group 1), (2) into muscles of old mdx mice (15 months) nonirradiated and noninjected with notexin (group 2), and (3) into muscles of 5 months mdx mice irradiated 3 months before the transplantation (group 3). Roughly 3 million cells were injected with bFGF in the Tibialis anterior. Results. Although mice of groups 2 and 3 had significantly more (P<0.05) fibrotic tissue in their muscles than those of group I, the transplantation success was not significantly different among the three groups. Conclusion. Therefore these results demonstrated that myoblast transplantation can be successful even when there is abundant fibrosis.