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Published on: February 2, 2017
Comprehensive morphometric assessment of deltoid muscle development in children: A cross-sectional study
Teresinha Evangelista1, Malick Kandji2, Emmanuelle Lacene3
1AP-HP, H. Pitié-Salpêtrière, Institut de Myologie, Unité de Morphologie Neuromusculaire, France; AP-HP, H. Pitié-Salpêtrière, Centre de référence des maladies neuromusculaires Nord/Est/Ile de France, France; Sorbonne Université, INSERM, Institut de Myologie, Centre de Recherche en Myologie, France.
Insights
This study establishes normative values for paediatric muscle fibre morphology, revealing key developmental changes around puberty. These findings provide essential reference biomarkers for diagnosing neuromuscular conditions and assessing treatment efficacy in children.
Area of Science:
- Muscle physiology
- Paediatric development
- Biomarker discovery
Background:
- Normative values for paediatric muscle fibre morphometrics are currently unavailable.
- Such data are crucial for evaluating pathological changes and treatment responses.
- Reference biomarkers are needed for clinical trials, sports physiology, and aging studies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To generate normative values for muscle fibre morphometric parameters in children aged 0-18 years.
- To establish reference charts for muscle fibre types and morphology during paediatric development.
- To provide a basis for accurate evaluation of neuromuscular conditions and treatment efficacy.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of 33,094 muscle fibres from 83 deltoid muscle biopsies (0-18 years) using patented CARPACCIO.cloud algorithms.
- Measurement of cross-sectional area (CSA), fibre type proportion, circularity, and Minimum Feret diameter (MinFeret).
- Utilized 10 μm cross-sections from snap-frozen muscle stained with ATPase 9.4.
Main Results:
- Muscle fibre size parameters (MinFeret, CSA) show gender dependency only after puberty.
- Fibre type 1 proportion remains stable until age 10, then decreases to ~40% by age 18.
- Circularity decreases with age, plateauing around age 10 for both fibre types.
Conclusions:
- Generated normative values and reference charts for muscle fibre types in the paediatric age range.
- Facilitates comparison of data for patients in neuromuscular disease pathology laboratories.
- Enables accurate assessment of pathological changes and treatment response in paediatric populations.
Background:
Normative values for different morphometric parameters of muscle fibres during paediatric development, i.e. from 0 to 18 years, are currently unavailable. They would be of major importance to accurately evaluate pathological changes and could be used as reference biomarkers for evaluating treatment response in clinical trials, or physiological adjustments in sports or ageing.
Methods:
Data were derived from 482 images with a total of 33 094 fibres from 10 μm cross-sections of snap-frozen muscle from 83 deltoid muscle biopsies from patients, 0-18 years, without neuromuscular pathology stained with ATPase 9.4. Data was acquired and analysed with patented image analysis algorithms from "CARPACCIO.cloud". Several parameters were extracted or calculated, including cross-sectional area (CSA), fibre type, circularity, as well as the Minimum diameter of Feret (MinFeret).
Findings:
This study illustrates changes in quantitative parameters for muscle morphology over the course of paediatric development and the pivotal changes occurring around puberty. Only fibre size parameters (MinFeret, CSA) are dependent on gender, and only after puberty. All other parameters vary in a similar manner for females and males. The proportion of type 1 fibres is essentially constant from birth to age 10, decreasing to ≈40% by age 18. Circularity decreases with age, to plateau after age 10 for both fibre types.
Interpretation:
Normative values and reference charts for muscle fibre types in this age range have been generated to allow comparison of data from patients in pathology laboratories working on neuromuscular diseases.
Funding:
BPI FRANCE, PULSALYS, Association de l'Institut de Myologie, French National Research Agency (ANR), LABEX CORTEX of Université de Lyon.
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