Genetic categories and clinical outcomes and behavioral responses in Fibromyalgia women

Thursday, October 11, 2012 — Poster Session III
10:00 a.m. – Noon	Natcher Conference Center, Building 45	NINR	GEN/GENOM-15

Authors

• N Lukkahatai
• B Walitt
• B Majors
• G Alves
• L Saligan

Abstract

AIM: To examine behavioral categories of fatigued fibromyalgia patients based on differentially expressed genes. BACKGROUND: Fibromyalgia (FM) is chronic musculoskeletal condition characterized by diffused pain, fatigue and sleep disturbance. Fatigue and pain deteriorate FM patients’ quality of life. METHOD: FM women diagnosed using the 2010 American College of Rheumatology FM diagnostic criteria were enrolled under an active Medstar Research Institute protocol. Participants completed questionnaires. Microarray technology determined differential gene expression from RNAs of peripheral blood samples collected Paxgene tubes® using Affymetrix GeneChip® human genome U133 Plus 2.0. FINDINGS: Thirty-one women with significant fatigue (general fatigue score ≥ 13) were analysed. Two distinct clusters based on gene expression were revealed with 49 genes differentially expressed over 2-fold change (p < 0.05) between them. Logistic regression showed FM women in cluster one were more likely to have higher pain intensity (odd ratio [OR] = 0.56), fatigue (OR = 0.98) and catastrophizing (OR = 0.96) and lower pain interference (OR = 2.34), depression (OR = 1.12) and anxiety (OR=1.21) than FM women in cluster two. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide evidence that resilience of FM women may be associated by expression of specific genes. Further investigation to confirm these categories is warranted.

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