Myogenic satellite cells were isolated from control and dystrophic hamster diaphragms to examine cellular mechanisms involved in the physiology of muscular dystrophy. The Bio 14.6 dystrophic hamster, which possesses a defect in the delta-sarcoglycan gene, develops biochemical and physical symptoms of Duchenne-like and limb girdle muscular dystrophies. Because primary cultures of the control and dystrophic satellite cells became extensively contaminated with non-myogenic cells during proliferation, cell clones were developed to provide pure cultures for study. Cell culture conditions were optimized with the use of Ham’s F-12K medium containing 10% fetal bovine serum +5% horse serum + 10ng/mL basic fibroblast growth factor + 50μg/mL porcine gelatin. Proliferation rates of the two clonal cultures were similar between the two lines. Satellite cell-derived myotubes from both primary cultures and clones differed between control and dystrophic animals. Dystrophic myotubes tended to be long and narrow, while the control-derived myotubes were broader. Measurement of muscle-specific creatine kinase during differentiation revealed that the dystrophic myotubes possessed higher creatine kinase levels than control myotubes (up to 146-fold at 168h). The results demonstrate that satellite cells can be isolated from the hamster and may provide a useful tool to study muscular dystrophies associated with defects in the sarcoglycan complex and the involvement of sarcoglycans in normal skeletal muscle growth and development.