Partial correction of an inherited biochemical defect of skeletal muscle by grafts of normal muscle precursor cells.

We have attempted to use allografts of normal muscle precursor cells (mpc) to insert donor nuclei, containing a normal genome, into growing or regenerating skeletal muscle fibres of mice with an inherited deficiency of the enzyme phosphorylase kinase (PhK). Analysis of the glucose-6-phosphate isomerase (GPI) isoenzymes of treated muscles showed that myonuclei of donor origin became incorporated into host muscle fibres in 8 of 9 regenerating autografts, but PhK activity was found only in the 3 grafts into which the largest numbers (1-3 x 10(6)) of mpc had been implanted. Following injection of normal mpc into growing PhK-deficient skeletal muscle, mosaic fibres containing myonuclei of donor origin were detected in only 11 of 192 muscles examined from 64 mice, but, of these 11 muscles, 5 contained PhK activity detectable by two separate assays in a further 4 muscles activity was detected by one or other assay.