{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,24]],"date-time":"2026-01-24T01:58:59Z","timestamp":1769219939440,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"21","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,25]],"date-time":"2021-10-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1635120000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002920","name":"Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["14163517, 12120818, 14130216"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["14163517, 12120818, 14130216"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002920","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100005847","name":"Health and Medical Research Fund","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["06170546"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["06170546"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100005847","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China\/RGC Joint Research Scheme","award":["N_CUHK416\/16 and 8161101087"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["N_CUHK416\/16 and 8161101087"]}]},{"name":"Hainan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["819QN365"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["819QN365"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["81902270"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["81902270"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JCM"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Previous studies have reported abnormal muscle morphology and functions in patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). To answer whether such abnormalities could be reflected in their circulation and their clinical implication for predicting curve progression to the surgical threshold, this preliminary study explored the presence of baseline muscle-related proteins and their association with curve progression. Plasma samples were collected at the first clinical visit for AIS, with patients divided into non-progressive or progressive groups (N = four and four) according to their Cobb angle in six-year follow-ups, with age- and sex-matched healthy subjects (N = 50). Then, the samples were subjected to isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) for global comparison of untargeted protein expression. Seventy-one differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were found elevated in progressive AIS. Functional analysis showed that 18 of these are expressed in muscles and play an essential role in muscle activities. Among the muscle-related DEPs, \u03b1-actin had the highest fold change in progressive\/non-progressive groups. This preliminary study firstly suggested higher circulating levels of muscle structural proteins in progressive AIS, indicating the likelihood of structural damage at the microscopic level and its association with progression to the surgical threshold. Further studies with larger sample sizes are warranted to validate these novel candidates for early diagnosis and predicting progression.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jcm10214927","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,25]],"date-time":"2021-10-25T21:40:21Z","timestamp":1635198021000},"page":"4927","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Potential Muscle-Related Biomarkers in Predicting Curve Progression to the Surgical Threshold in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis\u2014A Pilot Proteomic Study Comparing Four Non-Progressive vs. Four Progressive Patients vs. A Control Cohort"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3568-898X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yujia","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, SH Ho Scoliosis Research Laboratory, Joint Scoliosis Research Center of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Nanjing University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China"},{"name":"Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5072-1848","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Huanxiong","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, SH Ho Scoliosis Research Laboratory, Joint Scoliosis Research Center of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Nanjing University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China"},{"name":"Department of Spine and Osteopathic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University, Haikou 570102, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5117-5124","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jiajun","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, SH Ho Scoliosis Research Laboratory, Joint Scoliosis Research Center of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Nanjing University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2427-2719","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tsz-ping","family":"Lam","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, SH Ho Scoliosis Research Laboratory, Joint Scoliosis Research Center of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Nanjing University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1809-8205","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"A.L.H.","family":"Hung","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, SH Ho Scoliosis Research Laboratory, Joint Scoliosis Research Center of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Nanjing University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8153-364X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"J.C.Y.","family":"Cheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, SH Ho Scoliosis Research Laboratory, Joint Scoliosis Research Center of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Nanjing University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0486-360X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"W.Y.W.","family":"Lee","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, SH Ho Scoliosis Research Laboratory, Joint Scoliosis Research Center of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Nanjing University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China"},{"name":"Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"15030","DOI":"10.1038\/nrdp.2015.30","article-title":"Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis","volume":"1","author":"Weinstein","year":"2015","journal-title":"Nat. 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