Objective: Glatiramer acetate (GA), an agent modulating the immune system, has been shown to cause significantly improved mobility and hind limb muscle strength in the dy2J/dy2J mouse model for LAMA2-congenital muscular dystrophy (LAMA2-CMD). In view of these findings and the prominent peripheral nervous system involvement in this laminin-α2 disorder we evaluated GA's effect on dy2J/dy2J motor nerve conduction electrophysiologically.
Methods: Left sciatic-tibial motor nerve conduction studies were performed on wild type (WT) mice (n = 10), control dy2J/dy2J mice (n = 11), and GA treated dy2J/dy2J mice (n = 10) at 18 weeks of age.
Results: Control dy2J/dy2J mice average velocities (34.49 ± 2.15 m/s) were significantly slower than WT (62.57 ± 2.23 m/s; p < 0.0005), confirming the clinical observation of hindlimb paresis in dy2J/dy2J mice attributed to peripheral neuropathy. GA treated dy2J/dy2J mice showed significantly improved average sciatic-tibial motor nerve conduction velocity versus control dy2J/dy2J (50.35 ± 2.9 m/s; p < 0.0005).
Conclusion: In this study we show for the first time improvement in motor nerve conduction velocity of LAMA2-CMD dy2J/dy2J mouse model's hereditary peripheral neuropathy following GA treatment.
Significance: This study suggests a possible therapeutic effect of glatiramer acetate on hereditary peripheral neuropathy in this laminin-α2 disorder.
Keywords: Glatiramer acetate; LAMA2-congenital muscular dystrophy; Nerve conduction; Peripheral neuropathy; dy(2J)/dy(2J) mice.
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