A functional membrane repair system in Duchenne muscular dystrophy fibroblasts.

Experiments have been performed to determine if fibroblasts from patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) are defective in a process of membrane repair. Normal and DMD fibroblasts were treated with phospholipase C from Clostridium perfringens to degrade plasma membrane phosphatidylcholine, and then phosphatidylcholine synthesis was measured as the incorporation of [3H] choline into lipid. Phosphatidylcholine synthesis was stimulated by phospholipase C treatment to a similar extent in normal and DMD fibroblasts. The activity of CTP: phosphocholine cytidylyltransferase, the enzyme regulating phosphatidylcholine synthesis in phospholipase C-treated mammalian cells, was also stimulated to the same extent in both cell types. The subcellular location of the cytidylyltransferase was changed by phospholipase C treatment from mostly cytosolic to mostly particulate in both normal and DMD fibroblasts. It appears, therefore, that at least one type of membrane repair system functions normally in DMD fibroblasts.