Genotyping of exons 1 to 20 in Duchenne muscular dystrophy by universal multiplex PCR and short-end capillary electrophoresis.

One rapid CE method was established to diagnose Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). DMD is a severe recessive inherited disorder frequently caused by gene deletions. Among them, exons 1-20 account for nearly 30% of occurrences. In this study, the universal multiplex PCR was used to enhance the fluorescently labeling efficiency, which was performed only by one universal fluorescent primer. After PCR, a short-end injection CE (short-end CE) speeded up the genotyping of the DMD gene. This method involved no extra purification, and was completed within 9 min. The CE conditions contained a polymer solution of 1.5% hydroxylethylcellulose in 1× TBE buffer at 6 kV for separation. This method was applied to test six DMD patients and one healthy male person. The results showed good agreement with those of multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification. This method can be applied for clinical diagnosis of DMD disease. Accurate diagnosis of the DMD gene is the best way to prevent the disease.