Relevance of muscle biopsies in the neonatal and early infantile period: a 52 years retrospective study in the gene-sequencing era.

Neuromuscular disorders (NMD) with neonatal or early infantile onset are usually severe and differ in symptoms, complications, and treatment options. The establishment of a diagnosis relies on the combination of clinical examination, morphological analyses of muscle biopsies, and genetic investigations. Here, we re-evaluated and classified a unique collection of 535 muscle biopsies from NMD infants aged 0-6 months examined over a period of 52 years.

Superfluid Fraction in an Interacting Spatially Modulated Bose-Einstein Condensate.

At zero temperature, a Galilean-invariant Bose fluid is expected to be fully superfluid. Here we investigate theoretically and experimentally the quenching of the superfluid density of a dilute Bose-Einstein condensate due to the breaking of translational (and thus Galilean) invariance by an external 1D periodic potential. Both Leggett's bound fixed by the knowledge of the total density and the anisotropy of the sound velocity provide a consistent determination of the superfluid fraction.

Novel autosomal dominant TPM3 mutation causes a combined congenital fibre type disproportion-cap disease histological pattern.

Tropomyosin 3 (TPM3) gene mutations associate with autosomal dominant and recessive nemaline myopathy 1 (NEM1), congenital fiber type disproportion myopathy (CFTD) and cap myopathy (CAPM1), and a combination of caps and nemaline bodies. We report on a 47-year-old man with polyglobulia, restricted vital capacity and mild apnea hypopnea syndrome, requiring noninvasive ventilation. Physical assessment revealed bilateral ptosis and facial paresis, with high arched palate and retrognathia; global hypotonia and diffuse axial weakness, including neck and upper and lower limb girdle and foot dorsiflexion weakness.

The terminal segment of the human phrenic nerve as a novel implantation site for diaphragm pacing electrodes: Anatomical and clinical description.

Background: Diaphragm pacing allows certain ventilator-dependent patients to achieve weaning from mechanical ventilation. The reference method consists in implanting intrathoracic contact electrodes around the phrenic nerve during video-assisted thoracic surgery, which involves time-consuming phrenic nerve dissection with a risk of nerve damage. Identifying a phrenic segment suitable for dissection-free implantation of electrodes would constitute progress.

NEM6, KBTBD13-Related Congenital Myopathy: Myopathological Analysis in 18 Dutch Patients Reveals Ring Rods Fibers, Cores, Nuclear Clumps, and Granulo-Filamentous Protein Material.

Nemaline myopathy type 6 (NEM6), KBTBD13-related congenital myopathy is caused by mutated KBTBD13 protein that interacts improperly with thin filaments/actin, provoking impaired muscle-relaxation kinetics. We describe muscle morphology in 18 Dutch NEM6 patients and correlate it with clinical phenotype and pathophysiological mechanisms. Rods were found in in 85% of biopsies by light microscopy, and 89% by electron microscopy.

A Heterozygous Mutation in the Filamin C Gene Causes an Unusual Nemaline Myopathy With Ring Fibers.

Autosomal dominant pathogenic variants in the filamin C gene (FLNC) have been associated with myofibrillar myopathies, distal myopathies, and isolated cardiomyopathies. Mutations in different functional domains of FLNC can cause various clinical phenotypes. A novel heterozygous missense variant c.

A New Glycogen Storage Disease Caused by a Dominant PYGM Mutation.

Objective: Glycogen storage diseases (GSDs) are severe human disorders resulting from abnormal glucose metabolism, and all previously described GSDs segregate as autosomal recessive or X-linked traits. In this study, we aimed to molecularly characterize the first family with a dominant GSD.

Methods: We describe a dominant GSD family with 13 affected members presenting with adult-onset muscle weakness, and we provide clinical, metabolic, histological, and ultrastructural data.

Deep morphological analysis of muscle biopsies from type III glycogenesis (GSDIII), debranching enzyme deficiency, revealed stereotyped vacuolar myopathy and autophagy impairment.

Glycogen storage disorder type III (GSDIII), or debranching enzyme (GDE) deficiency, is a rare metabolic disorder characterized by variable liver, cardiac, and skeletal muscle involvement. GSDIII manifests with liver symptoms in infancy and muscle involvement during early adulthood. Muscle biopsy is mainly performed in patients diagnosed in adulthood, as routine diagnosis relies on blood or liver GDE analysis, followed by AGL gene sequencing.

HNRNPDL-related muscular dystrophy: expanding the clinical, morphological and MRI phenotypes.

Autosomal dominant limb girdle muscular dystrophy D3 HNRNPDL-related is a rare dominant myopathy caused by mutations in HNRNPDL. Only three unrelated families have been described worldwide, a Brazilian and a Chinese carrying the mutation c.1132G>A p.

'Dusty core disease' (DuCD): expanding morphological spectrum of RYR1 recessive myopathies.

Several morphological phenotypes have been associated to RYR1-recessive myopathies. We recharacterized the RYR1-recessive morphological spectrum by a large monocentric study performed on 54 muscle biopsies from a large cohort of 48 genetically confirmed patients, using histoenzymology, immunohistochemistry, and ultrastructural studies. We also analysed the level of RyR1 expression in patients' muscle biopsies.

Clathrin plaques and associated actin anchor intermediate filaments in skeletal muscle.

Clathrin plaques are stable features of the plasma membrane observed in several cell types. They are abundant in muscle, where they localize at costameres that link the contractile apparatus to the sarcolemma and connect the sarcolemma to the basal lamina. Here, we show that clathrin plaques and surrounding branched actin filaments form microdomains that anchor a three-dimensional desmin intermediate filament (IF) web.

Loss of Sarcomeric Scaffolding as a Common Baseline Histopathologic Lesion in Titin-Related Myopathies.

Titin-related myopathies are heterogeneous clinical conditions associated with mutations in TTN. To define their histopathologic boundaries and try to overcome the difficulty in assessing the pathogenic role of TTN variants, we performed a thorough morphological skeletal muscle analysis including light and electron microscopy in 23 patients with different clinical phenotypes presenting pathogenic autosomal dominant or autosomal recessive (AR) mutations located in different TTN domains. We identified a consistent pattern characterized by diverse defects in oxidative staining with prominent nuclear internalization in congenital phenotypes (AR-CM) (n = 10), ± necrotic/regenerative fibers, associated with endomysial fibrosis and rimmed vacuoles (RVs) in AR early-onset Emery-Dreifuss-like (AR-ED) (n = 4) and AR adult-onset distal myopathies (n = 4), and cytoplasmic bodies (CBs) as predominant finding in hereditary myopathy with early respiratory failure (HMERF) patients (n = 5).

Novel mutations causing prenatal-onset muscle weakness with arthrogryposis and congenital bone fractures.

Background: The activating signal cointegrator 1 (ASC-1) complex acts as a transcriptional coactivator for a variety of transcription factors and consists of four subunits: ASCC1, ASCC2, ASCC3 and TRIP4. A single homozygous mutation in has recently been reported in two families with a severe muscle and bone disorder.

Objective: We aim to contribute to a better understanding of the ASCC1-related disorder.

Predictors of red blood cell transfusion and its association with prognosis in patients undergoing extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

Purpose: Few data are available on the potential benefits and risks of red blood cell transfusion in patients undergoing extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. The aim of this study was to identify the determinants and prognosis of red blood cell transfusion in patients undergoing extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, with a special focus on biological parameters during extracorporeal membrane oxygenation treatment.

Methods: We conducted a single-center retrospective cohort study including all consecutive patients who underwent extracorporeal membrane oxygenation between January 2010 and December 2015.

Genetic Mutations and Demographic, Clinical, and Morphological Aspects of Myofibrillar Myopathy in a French Cohort.

Background: Protein aggregate myopathies (PAM) represent a group of familial or sporadic neuromuscular conditions with marked clinical and genetic heterogeneity that occur in children and adults. Familial PAM includes myofibrillar myopathies defined by the presence of desmin-positive protein aggregates and degenerative intermyofibrillar network changes. PAM is often caused by dysfunctional genes, such as DES, PLEC 1, CRYAB, FLNC, MYOT, ZASP, BAG3, FHL1, and DNAJB6.

A novel FLNC frameshift and an OBSCN variant in a family with distal muscular dystrophy.

A novel FLNC c.5161delG (p.Gly1722ValfsTer61) mutation was identified in two members of a French family affected by distal myopathy and in one healthy relative.

Mutations in GFPT1-related congenital myasthenic syndromes are associated with synaptic morphological defects and underlie a tubular aggregate myopathy with synaptopathy.

Mutations in GFPT1 (glutamine-fructose-6-phosphate transaminase 1), a gene encoding an enzyme involved in glycosylation of ubiquitous proteins, cause a limb-girdle congenital myasthenic syndrome (LG-CMS) with tubular aggregates (TAs) characterized predominantly by affection of the proximal skeletal muscles and presence of highly organized and remodeled sarcoplasmic tubules in patients' muscle biopsies. We report here the first long-term clinical follow-up of 11 French individuals suffering from LG-CMS with TAs due to GFPT1 mutations, of which nine are new. Our retrospective clinical evaluation stresses an evolution toward a myopathic weakness that occurs concomitantly to ineffectiveness of usual CMS treatments.

Dihydropyridine receptor (DHPR, CACNA1S) congenital myopathy.

Muscle contraction upon nerve stimulation relies on excitation-contraction coupling (ECC) to promote the rapid and generalized release of calcium within myofibers. In skeletal muscle, ECC is performed by the direct coupling of a voltage-gated L-type Ca channel (dihydropyridine receptor; DHPR) located on the T-tubule with a Ca release channel (ryanodine receptor; RYR1) on the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) component of the triad. Here, we characterize a novel class of congenital myopathy at the morphological, molecular, and functional levels.

A novel gain-of-function mutation in ORAI1 causes late-onset tubular aggregate myopathy and congenital miosis.

We present three members of an Italian family affected by tubular aggregate myopathy (TAM) and congenital miosis harboring a novel missense mutation in ORAI1. All patients had a mild, late onset TAM revealed by asymptomatic creatine kinase (CK) elevation and congenital miosis consistent with a Stormorken-like Syndrome, in the absence of thrombocytopathy. Muscle biopsies showed classical histological findings but ultrastructural analysis revealed atypical tubular aggregates (TAs).

Impaired Presynaptic High-Affinity Choline Transporter Causes a Congenital Myasthenic Syndrome with Episodic Apnea.

The neuromuscular junction (NMJ) is one of the best-studied cholinergic synapses. Inherited defects of peripheral neurotransmission result in congenital myasthenic syndromes (CMSs), a clinically and genetically heterogeneous group of rare diseases with fluctuating fatigable muscle weakness as the clinical hallmark. Whole-exome sequencing and Sanger sequencing in six unrelated families identified compound heterozygous and homozygous mutations in SLC5A7 encoding the presynaptic sodium-dependent high-affinity choline transporter 1 (CHT), which is known to be mutated in one dominant form of distal motor neuronopathy (DHMN7A).

PABPN1 (GCN)11 as a Dominant Allele in Oculopharyngeal Muscular Dystrophy -Consequences in Clinical Diagnosis and Genetic Counselling.

Oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD) is mainly characterized by ptosis and dysphagia. The genetic cause is a short expansion of a (GCN)10 repeat encoding for polyalanine in the poly(A) binding protein nuclear 1 (PABPN1) gene to (GCN)12-17 repeats. The (GCN)11/Ala11 allele has so far been described to be either a polymorphism or a recessive allele with no effect on the phenotype in the heterozygous state.