CASP3 and Duchenne muscular dystrophy: In this study, prednisolone improved the DMD pathologies by not up-regulation of utrophin protein but both up-regulation of laminin protein through the down-regulation of MMP-2 mRNA and promotion of cell survival such as inhibition of the expression of cleaved caspase 3 and up-regulation of p-Akt expression (Figures 4, 5A–C and Supplementary Figure 2).