Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Sep 30:13:1038222.
doi: 10.3389/fgene.2022.1038222. eCollection 2022.

Genetic and immune crosstalk between severe burns and blunt trauma: A study of transcriptomic data

Xiaoming Chen  1 , Kuan Wang  2 , Dazhuang Li  3 , Mingyue Zhao  4 , Biao Huang  1 , Wenxing Su  1 , Daojiang Yu  1
Affiliations

Genetic and immune crosstalk between severe burns and blunt trauma: A study of transcriptomic data

Xiaoming Chen et al. Front Genet. .

Abstract

Background: Severe burns and blunt trauma can lead to multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, the leading cause of death in intensive care units. In addition to infection, the degree of immune inflammatory response also affects prognosis. However, the characteristics and clinical relevance of the common mechanisms of these major diseases are still underexplored. Methods: In the present study, we performed microarray data analysis to identify immune-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs) involved in both disease progression in burns and blunt trauma. Six analyses were subsequently performed, including gene enrichment analysis, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network construction, immune cell infiltration analysis, core gene identification, co-expression network analysis, and clinical correlation analysis. Results: A total of 117 common immune-related DEGs was selected for subsequent analyses. Functional analysis emphasizes the important role of Th17 cell differentiation, Th1 and Th2 cell differentiation, Cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction and T cell receptor signaling pathway in these two diseases. Finally, eight core DEGs were identified using cytoHubba, including CD8A, IL10, CCL5, CD28, LCK, CCL4, IL2RB, and STAT1. The correlation analysis showed that the identified core DEGs were more or less significantly associated with simultaneous dysregulation of immune cells in blunt trauma and sepsis patients. Of these, the downregulation of CD8A and CD28 had a worse prognosis. Conclusion: Our analysis lays the groundwork for future studies to elucidate molecular mechanisms shared in burns and blunt trauma. The functional roles of identified core immune-related DEGs and dysregulated immune cell subsets warrant further in-depth study.

Keywords: bioinformatics; blunt trauma; burns; core immune-related genes; differentially expressed genes; immune cell infiltration.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Research design flow chart.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
(A) The volcano map of GSE11375. (B) The volcano map of GSE77791. (C) Venn diagram show that 117 overlapping immune-related DEGs in GSE11375, GSE77791 and ImmuCellAI database.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
(A) Enrichment result of overlapping immune-related DEGs GO term; (B) Enrichment result of overlapping immune-related DEGs KEGG pathway. Adjusted p-value < 0.05 was considered significant.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
(A) PPI network constructed using the STRING database. (B) The Venn diagram showed that six algorithms have screened out 8 core immune-related DEGs. (C) Core immune-related DEGs and their co-expression genes were analyzed via GeneMANIA.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
(A–C) Stacked bar chart of the immune cell. The different colors of the rectangular bars in the diagram represent different immune cells, and the length represents the proportion of immune cells. (B–D) The correlation matrix of immune cell proportions. The numbers in the squares represent the correlation coefficients between the corresponding immune cells.
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
(A) Comparison of immune cell fractions between blunt trauma patients and healthy controls. (B) Comparison of immune cell fractions between burns patients and healthy controls.
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
(A) Correlations between core immune-related DEGs and immune cell components in blunt trauma patients. (B) Correlation between core immune-related DEGs and immune cell components in burns patients.
FIGURE 8
FIGURE 8
(A,B) Expression levels of core immune-related DEGs in GSE36809 and GSE19743.
FIGURE 9
FIGURE 9
(A,B) ROC curve analysis of core immune-related DEGs in blunt trauma and burns. (C) Differences in expression of core immune-related DEGs between survival and non-survival of burns patients.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Adib-Conquy M., Cavaillon J. M. (2009). Compensatory anti-inflammatory response syndrome. Thromb. Haemost. 101 (1), 36–47. 10.1160/th08-07-0421 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Aird W. C. (2003). The role of the endothelium in severe sepsis and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. Blood 101 (10), 3765–3777. 10.1182/blood-2002-06-1887 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Amara U., Kalbitz M., Perl M., Flierl M. A., Rittirsch D., Weiss M., et al. (2010). Early expression changes of complement regulatory proteins and C5A receptor (CD88) on leukocytes after multiple injury in humans. Shock 33 (6), 568–575. 10.1097/SHK.0b013e3181c799d4 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Antonacci A. C., Calvano S. E., Reaves L. E., Prajapati A., Bockman R., Welte K., et al. (1984). Autologous and allogeneic mixed-lymphocyte responses following thermal injury in man: The immunomodulatory effects of interleukin 1, interleukin 2, and a prostaglandin inhibitor, WY-18251. Clin. Immunol. Immunopathol. 30 (2), 304–320. 10.1016/0090-1229(84)90064-3 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ayala A., Ertel W., Chaudry I. H. (1996). Trauma-induced suppression of antigen presentation and expression of major histocompatibility class II antigen complex in leukocytes. Shock 5 (2), 79–90. 10.1097/00024382-199602000-00001 - DOI - PubMed