Homeostasis Imbalance Muscular System Health, Medicine, Nursing Essay (Essay Sample)

Homeostasis Imbalance Muscular System
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Muscular Dystrophy
Muscular dystrophy is defined as a type of a muscular disease caused by mutations in one’s genes. The disease progress is gradual, whereby the muscles become weak over time leading to poor mobility, which has an effect on one’s capacity to conduct some tasks. There exist various types of muscular dystrophies such as Duchenne, myotonic, limb-girdle, congenital, distal, and oculopharyngeal that affect specific kinds of muscle groups. For instance, Duchenne muscular dystrophy is the most common and it exhibits symptoms such as falls, muscular pains, large calf muscles, and delayed growth. Muscular dystrophy is primarily a hereditary condition that degenerate muscle fibers leading to their replacement with a fibrous scar tissue. It is noteworthy that is as a result of a defective gene that occurs on the 23rd chromosome, which subsequently results in the failure of production of an essential muscle protein referred to as dystrophin. Further, females who carry the defective gene are unaffected, but there is a 50% possibility of passing on the gene to the offspring. The pathophysiology of this condition entails the disruption of dystrophin located in the dystrophin protein complex. The dystrophin protein complex is characteristically rich in myofibers, which together form the costameres within the plasma membrane. Lack of dystrophin makes the plasma membrane quite fragile with a significant lack of stiffness. The degeneration of the myofibers is largely due to the process of necrotic cell death. Even though, there may be an activation of the membrane repair process, the myofibers will not be fully restored leading to impaired functions of the muscles. Therefore, the muscular dystrophy that occurs is a multifold occurrence, which requires multiple treatment alternatives (Goldstein & McNally, 2010).