Genome-wide expression profiling of complex regional pain syndrome.
Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a chronic, progressive, and devastating pain syndrome characterized by spontaneous pain, hyperalgesia, allodynia, altered skin temperature, and motor dysfunction. Although previous gene expression profiling studies have been conducted in animal pain models, there genome-wide expression profiling in the whole blood of CRPS patients has not been reported yet. Here, we successfully identified certain pain-related genes through genome-wide expression profiling in the blood from CRPS patients. We found that 80 genes were differentially expressed between 4 CRPS patients (2 CRPS I and 2 CRPS II) and 5 controls (cut-off value: 1.5-fold change and p<0.05). Most of those genes were associated with signal transduction, developmental processes, cell structure and motility, and immunity and defense. The expression levels of major histocompatibility complex class I A subtype (HLA-A29.1), matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9), alanine aminopeptidase N (ANPEP), l-histidine decarboxylase (HDC), granulocyte colony-stimulating factor 3 receptor (G-CSF3R), and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) genes selected from the microarray were confirmed in 24 CRPS patients and 18 controls by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). We focused on the MMP9 gene that, by qRT-PCR, showed a statistically significant difference in expression in CRPS patients compared to controls with the highest relative fold change (4.0±1.23 times and p = 1.4×10(-4)). The up-regulation of MMP9 gene in the blood may be related to the pain progression in CRPS patients. Our findings, which offer a valuable contribution to the understanding of the differential gene expression in CRPS may help in the understanding of the pathophysiology of CRPS pain progression.
Research Institute for Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, Korea ; Clinical Trials Center, Chungnam National University Hospital, Daejeon, Korea.
Eun-Heui
EH
Jin
Enji
E
Zhang
Youngkwon
Y
Ko
Woo Seog
WS
Sim
Dong Eon
DE
Moon
Keon Jung
KJ
Yoon
Jang Hee
JH
Hong
Won Hyung
WH
Lee
D000328:Adult; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D020918:Complex Regional Pain Syndromes / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D055815:Young Adult