Composition of Hypertrophic and Atrophic Muscles in Genetic Muscular Dystrophy of the Chicken∗

Summary Analysis of hypertrophic and atrophic pectoral muscles of chickens with hereditary muscular dystrophy for total nitrogen, nonprotein nitrogen, noncollagen protein nitrogen, and collagen indicates that when considered on the fat-free basis the two types of muscle do not differ in composition, except for collagen content. Dystrophic muscle differs in all these components from normal pectoral muscle. The composition of dystrophic muscle suggests that it is a juvenile type of muscle which fails to develop to the normal mature state.