The maintenance of this specific pool of CD34-positive, Pitx2-positive myogenic precursor cells with increased proliferative potential in adult EOM that is spared in the mdx:utrophin+/− mouse model of muscular dystrophy, and the relative absence of this pool of myogenic precursor cells in affected limb muscles, suggests that these cells may be involved in the ability to maintain muscle normalcy throughout life in these mice and in humans with various forms of muscular dystrophy. This evidence concerns the gene UTRN and muscular dystrophy.