Muscular dystrophies: alterations in a limited number of cellular pathways?

Identification of new genes involved in muscle disorders has dramatically changed the traditional clinical classification of the large and heterogeneous group of the muscular dystrophies. Results obtained in recent years by positional candidate cloning have demonstrated the role of the sarcolemma and of the nuclear envelope in normal muscle function and have elucidated molecular pathways perturbed by mutations that lead to muscular dystrophy.