Inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis produces a muscular dystrophy-like myopathy.

Administration of inhibitors of prostaglandin synthetase to chicken embryos produced myopathies in their skeletal muscles which were characterized by ringbinden, hypercontraction, loss of Z disks, M bands, and thick and thin filaments. The effects of the inhibitors were reversed by administration of PGE1. The pathology of the myopathy induced in the chicken embryos was identical to that observed in human muscular dystrophy and had some features in common with other congenital myopathies. Altered prostaglandin function may therefore be directly or indirectly involved in the pathogenesis of congenital myopathies.