Similar to previous findings from individuals with DMD (Hodges et al., 1997), we found a twofold increase in the average ITGA7 transcript levels in untreated GRMD dogs compared with wild-type dogs (Fig. 4D), although again this difference was not statistically significant owing to the high variability of the transcript levels in the untreated GRMD dogs. This evidence concerns the gene ITGA7 and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.