Relationship of muscle morphology to hip displacement in cerebral palsy: a pilot study investigating changes intrinsic to the sarcomere

Background: Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common cause of childhood disability, typified by a static encephalopathy with peripheral musculoskeletal manifestations-most commonly related to spasticity-that are progressive with age. Hip displacement is one of the most common manifestations, observed to lead to painful degenerative arthritis over time. Despite the key role that spasticity-related adductor muscle contractures are thought to play in the development of hip displacement in CP, basic science research in this area to date has been limited. This study was initiated to correlate hip adductor muscle changes intrinsic to the sarcomere-specifically, titin isoforms and sarcomere length-to the severity of hip displacement in children with spastic cerebral palsy.

Methods: Single gracilis muscle biopsies were obtained from children with CP (Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) III-V; n = 10) who underwent adductor muscle release surgery for the treatment of hip displacement. Gel electrophoresis was used to estimate titin molecular weight. Sarcomere lengths were measured from muscle fascicles using laser diffraction. The severity of hip displacement was determined by measuring by Reimers migration percentage (MP) from anteroposterior pelvic x-rays. Correlation analyses between titin, sarcomere lengths, and MP were performed.

Results: The mean molecular weight of titin was 3588 kDa. The mean sarcomere length was 3.51 μm. Increased MP was found to be associated with heavier isoforms of titin (R² = 0.65, p < 0.05) and with increased sarcomere lengths (R² = 0.65, p < 0.05). Heavier isoforms of titin were also associated with increased sarcomere lengths (R² = 0.80, p < 0.05).

Conclusions: Our results suggest that both larger titin isoforms and sarcomere lengths are positively correlated with increased severity of hip displacement and may represent adaptations in response to concomitant increases in spasticity and muscle shortening.

Trial registration: As this study does not report the results of a health care intervention on human participants, it has not been registered.