Andonian Brian J, Patel Hailee, Xu Mingzhi, Sudnick Alyssa M, Johnson Johanna L, Kraus William E, Truskey George A, Huffman Kim M
Division of Rheumatology and Immunology, Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States.
Duke Molecular Physiology Institute, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States.
Front Physiol. 2025 Apr 23;16:1575689. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2025.1575689. eCollection 2025.
Skeletal muscle disease in patients with early-stage rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is understudied. The objective of this study was to identify whether patients with early RA (symptoms <6 months) have impaired skeletal muscle health.
Participants with early RA (n = 10) and age-, sex-, and BMI-matched healthy controls (n = 10) underwent cross-sectional clinical, physiological, and muscle biomechanical property assessments. Upper and lower extremity muscles underwent passive biomechanical property-tone, stiffness, and elasticity-assessments via myotonometry (MyotonPro®). muscle force production and stiffness were assessed using 3D bioengineered myobundles derived from myoblasts obtained from vastus lateralis muscle biopsies.
Despite similar muscle mass and self-reported physical activity behaviors for patients with early RA and healthy controls, patients with early RA had poorer self-reported physical function, self-reported physical health, and right-hand grip strength (p < 0.05 for all). Early RA muscle tone and stiffness were lower than in controls (p < 0.05) and had an inverse association with prednisone use (rho = -0.72, p = 0.02). While 3D bioengineered myobundle force production and passive stiffness were similar to controls, early RA myobundle stiffness correlated with swollen joint count (rho = -0.67, p = 0.04).
In this exploratory study, patients with early RA exhibited multiple skeletal muscle deficits across clinical, physiologic, and biomechanical domains compared to controls with similar muscle mass and physical activity. and skeletal muscle biomechanical assessments may be useful to identify these deficits to better understand and improve RA muscle health.
早期类风湿关节炎（RA）患者的骨骼肌疾病研究不足。本研究的目的是确定早期RA（症状<6个月）患者的骨骼肌健康是否受损。
对早期RA患者（n = 10）以及年龄、性别和BMI匹配的健康对照者（n = 10）进行横断面临床、生理和肌肉生物力学特性评估。通过肌动测量法（MyotonPro®）对上肢和下肢肌肉进行被动生物力学特性——张力、僵硬度和弹性——评估。使用从外侧股肌活检获得的成肌细胞衍生的3D生物工程肌束评估肌肉力量产生和僵硬度。
尽管早期RA患者和健康对照者的肌肉质量和自我报告的身体活动行为相似，但早期RA患者的自我报告身体功能、自我报告身体健康和右手握力较差（均p < 0.05）。早期RA患者的肌张力和僵硬度低于对照组（p < 0.05），且与泼尼松使用呈负相关（rho = -0.72，p = 0.02）。虽然3D生物工程肌束的力量产生和被动僵硬度与对照组相似，但早期RA患者的肌束僵硬度与肿胀关节计数相关（rho = -0.67，p = 0.04）。
在这项探索性研究中，与肌肉质量和身体活动相似的对照组相比，早期RA患者在临床、生理和生物力学领域表现出多种骨骼肌缺陷。骨骼肌生物力学评估可能有助于识别这些缺陷，以更好地理解和改善RA患者的肌肉健康。
