X-ray diffraction from striated muscles and nerves in normal and dystrophic mice.

The structure of striated muscle (thick and thin filaments, filament lattice, and collagen), peripheral nerve myelin, and tendon collagen were studied in tissues from dystrophic and normal mice using small-angle x-ray diffraction. There were increases in the amount of disorganized tissue in the dystrophic mice, and the time course of the changes was monitored over the first 42 weeks of life. As the dystrophic mice became older, the contractile apparatus of the muscles appeared to atrophy, while the amount of collagen increased. In general, the molecular structure and packing appeared to remain unchanged as the disease progressed, although changes in the relative amounts and the organization of proteins were noted. In both normal and dystrophic mice, the collagen periodicity (65.7 nm) was 2% smaller when detected in muscle tissue compared with that detected in tendon tissue.