CASP3 and neuromuscular disease caused by qualitative or quantitative defects of dystrophin: Apoptosis is a programmed cell death mediated by mitochondrial proteins, caspase-3 and -9, which has been reported in various skeletal muscle diseases such as exercise-induced muscle damage, dystrophinopathies, inflammatory myopathies, ischemic atrophy, and spinal muscular atrophy [31–36].