الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Muscular Dystrophy is life-threatening hereditary disease that mainly affects boys due to complete -or partial- absence of a protein called “Dystrophin” that leads to skeletal muscles’ dystrophy and myofibers replacement with adipose tissues and necrotic fibers. Worth mentioning, these symptoms occur by taking some medications prescribed for lowering cholesterol level in the blood like Simvastatin in patients receiving it on the long -or even- short run.
This study aims to induce muscular dystrophy in male rats by simvastatin, and to assess the regenerative capacity of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) and muscle-derived stem cells (MDSCs) on skeletal muscles after induction of the disease.
The present study was accomplished on a total number of 50 male albino rats, with average weight 60-70 gm were brought in September 2015 and were divided into 2 main groups, the control group (n=8) which received no doses of SIMVACOR® (Simvastatin), and the Muscular Dystrophy group (n=40) which received 80 mg/kg b.wt./day as oral doses of SIMVACOR® for 46 days. In day 47, this group was randomly subdivided into: Subgroup 1 (n=8) which sacrificed in the same day, Subgroup 2A (n=8) that was injected by ADSCs in day 47 and dissected after 14 days of receiving stem cells therapy, Subgroup 2B (n=8) that was injected by ADSCs and dissected after 30 days, Subgroup 3A (n=8) that was injected by MDSCs and dissected after 14 days, and finally, Subgroup 3B (n=8) that was injected by MDSCs and dissected after 30 days of stem cells therapy injection. All animals were subjected to estimation of levels of serum creatine kinase (CK), total proteins (TP), calcium (Ca), motor nerve conduction velocity, caveolin-3 gene expression, chromosomal aberrations (CAs), histological examination, histochemical examination in the form of determination of skeletal muscle’s total protein (TP) content, and glycogen (GLYC) content.
When compared to the control group, animals of subgroup 1 which received oral doses of simvastatin showed a significant elevation in serum CK, no significant increase in serum TP and Ca levels, normal motor nerve conduction velocity, significant decrease in Cav-3 gene expression, no significant increase in total CAs, massive histological skeletal muscles’ destruction, no significant decrease in TP content, and a significant diminution in GLYC content of skeletal muscles. But on the other hand, animals of subgroup 2A, 2B, 3A, and 3B which injected with stem cells, showed -to great extent- noticeable improvements on the level of serum, gene expression, histological, and histochemical examinations.
Conclusion: Administration of ADSCs and MDSCs holds a very promising future in treatment of muscular dystrophy cases, and on the other hand, precautions have to be taken into consideration when simvastatin drug is prescribed since it may cause adverse effects on skeletal muscles health of hypercholesterolemic patients.
Keywords: Adipose-derived stem cells, Muscle-derived stem cells, Muscular dystrophy, Albino Rats.