Degl'Innocenti D, Pieri A, Berti A, Liguri G, Cecchi C, Ramponi G
Department of Biochemical Sciences, Università di Firenze, Italy.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1997 Jan 13;230(2):327-30. doi: 10.1006/bbrc.1996.5954.
Levels of free intracellular calcium have been measured on two cell lines of cultured human fibroblasts carrying the genetic lesions occurring in Duchenne and Becker dystrophies. Both cell lines elicited a markedly higher content of the cation (98 nM and 57 nM, respectively) than control fibroblasts (35 nM). Differences toward controls were statistically significant (p < 0.01). Dystrophic fibroblasts were also found to possess a significantly reduced amount by about 50% of muscular acylphosphatase isoenzyme as compared to normal cells. As acylphosphatase was demonstrated to be involved in the regulation of Ca2+-ATPase activity from different sources, a hypothesis was formulated that could explain the disruption of calcium homeostasis as an effect of the altered acylphosphatase activity.
