Chronic AMPK activation induces beneficial phenotypic adaptations in mdx mouse skeletal muscle

A therapeutic approach for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is to upregulate utrophin levels in skeletal muscle in an effort to compensate for the lack of dystrophin. We have previously hypothesized that promotion of the slow, oxidative myogenic program, which triggers utrophin upregulation, can attenuate the dystrophic pathology in mdx animals, the murine model of DMD. Indeed, treatment of mdx mice with the PPARδ activator GW501516 shifted …