Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy at the nuclear envelope: 10 years on

Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy (EDMD) is a neuromuscular degenerative condition with an associated dilated cardiomyopathy and cardiac conduction defect. It can be inherited in either an X-linked or autosomal manner by mutations in the nuclear proteins emerin and lamin A/C, respectively. Traditionally muscular dystrophies were associated with defects in sarcolemma-associated proteins and, therefore, a nuclear connection suggested the existence of novel signalling pathways associated with this group of diseases. Subsequently, other mutations in the lamin A/C gene were attributed to a range of tissue-specific degenerative conditions, collectively known as the 'laminopathies'. Therefore, any proposed hypothesis underlying the molecular mechanism of EDMD needs to include this anomaly. As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the identification of emerin as a component of the nuclear envelope, I discuss here the available evidence that currently implicates EDMD as arising from perturbations in myogenic regulatory pathways, causing temporal delays in both cell cycle progression and muscle regeneration.