DMD and Duchenne muscular dystrophy: Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a severe X-linked myodegenerative disease caused by defective expression of full-length dystrophin, a cortical cytoskeletal protein with a molecular mass of 427 kDa (Dp427) (Koenig et al., 1987; Blake et al., 2002; Mercuri et al., 2019).