Core B: Muscle Biopsy/Cell Culture/Diagnostics
Repository
The Repository currently contains a broad spectrum of skeletal muscle biopsies from approximately 8500 individuals. These include neuromuscular disease patients with Duchenne, Becker, limb girdle and congenital muscular dystrophies, other diverse genetic myopathies, inflammatory myopathies, and neuropathic diseases, as well as biopsies without histopathologic abnormalities. The Repository also contains fibroblast cultures from approximately 425 individuals, predominantly muscular dystrophy patients with a wide range of genotypes.
Well-characterized tissues and cells from Core B are made available to research investigators at academic centers across the USA and around the world. Research scientists may request tissue or cell cultures from specific types of patients by completing the appropriate forms. A link for request forms is immediately below.
In order to accrue new biopsies or cell cultures in the Repository, patient consent forms must be completed. A link for consent forms is immediately below.
Special Diagnostics Core
A wide range of muscular dystrophy testing services is currently available in the Department of Pathology at the University of Iowa. Information, requisitions, and shipping instructions for this routine testing can be accessed via the Pathology Muscular Dystrophy Testing Website.
The Special Diagnostics Core in the Iowa Wellstone MDCRC will provide protein-based testing for muscular dystrophy patients that is not available in the Iowa clinical laboratories. At the present time this includes western blots from skeletal muscle as well as on-cell westerns and nuclear morphology assays in cultured cells. Additional tests will be added over time. For additional information please contact Steven A. Moore.
