ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Neuromuscular Disorders and Peripheral Neuropathies
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1599600
This article is part of the Research TopicNeuromuscular disorders: biomarkers, precision diagnosis, and targeted therapeuticsView all 3 articles
Phenotypic aging mediates the association between Neutrophil Percentage-to-Albumin Ratio (NPAR) and Muscular Dystrophies (MD): a population-based study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Chosun University, Gwangju, Republic of Korea
- 2Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Current research on Muscular Dystrophies (MD) suggests that its occurrence is closely related to several mechanisms, including gene mutations, dystrophin deficiency, and alterations in the Akt/mTOR/p70S6K signaling pathway. The development of MD is influenced by factors such as genetics, inflammation, age, and underlying conditions. However, few studies have explored the association between the Neutrophil Percentage-to-Albumin Ratio (NPAR), phenotypic age, and MD. This study investigates the relationship between NPAR and MD and evaluates whether phenotypic age influences this association. Methods: Subgroup analysis, restricted cubic splines (RCS), and multivariable logistic regression were employed to explore the relationship between NPAR and MD. Additionally, mediation analysis was conducted to investigate the potential role of phenotypic age in the relationship between NPAR and MD. Results: A total of 3,416 participants were included in this study, among whom 268 cases of MD were reported (6%, weighted). After adjusting for all variables using multivariable logistic regression, each unit increase in NPAR and phenotypic age was associated with a 29% (OR=1.29, 95% CI: 1.19-1.39) and 7% (OR=1.07, 95% CI: 1.03-1.12) increase in the odds of muscular dystrophies, respectively. Consistent results were obtained when NPAR and phenotypic age were categorized into tertiles, with a P for trend < 0.001. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) analysis indicated a linear positive correlation between NPAR and MD prevalence. Mediation analysis showed that 22.26% of the relationship between NPAR and MD was mediated by phenotypic age (P=0.026). Conclusion: This study found a significant positive correlation between NPAR and MD, with phenotypic age acting as a partial mediator in this relationship. This finding underscores the potential of NPAR as a predictive marker for MD prevalence and highlights the importance of promoting healthy aging to reduce the risk of MD.
Keywords: Muscular Dystrophies, Neutrophil percentage-to-albumin ratio, Phenotypic Age, NHANES, Mediation analysis
Received: 14 Apr 2025; Accepted: 03 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gong, Wang, Lin and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Hongyang Gong, hygong@chosun.ac.kr
Shaoqun Huang, sqhuang@fjtcm.edu.cn
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.