Citation

Livingston WS, Gill J, Cota M, Olivera A, O'Keefe JL, Martin C, Latour L. J. Neurotrauma 2016; 34(4): 853-860.

Affiliation

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Section on Stroke Diagnostics and Therapeutics , Building 10, B1D733 , NIH , Bethesda, Maryland, United States , 20892 ; latourl@ninds.nih.gov.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Mary Ann Liebert Publishers)

DOI

10.1089/neu.2016.4479

PMID

27430610

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Injury to the meninges is not uncommon following TBI, yet minimal research has been directed towards understanding the relevant biology. Following a concussive event, the meninges are observed to abnormally enhance on post contrast MRI in some patients, but not all. The purpose of this work is to identify genes differentially expressed in patients with meningeal injury.

METHODS: Patients presenting to the emergency room with suspected TBI received a standard research MRI and blood draw within 48 hours of injury. Two groups of patients were included; those with and without abnormal enhancement of the meninges on post-contrast MRI, both without other imaging findings. Groups were compared on microarray gene expression in peripheral blood samples using Affymetrix and Partek Genomics Suite software (FDR<0.05).

RESULTS: Forty patients were enrolled with a time from injury to MRI/blood draw of 16.8 hours (IQR: 7.5-24.1). We observed 76 genes to be differentially expressed in patients with meningeal injury compared to those without, such as receptor for Fc fragment of IgA (FcαR), multiple C2 domains, transmembrane 2 (MCTP2), and G protein-coupled receptor 27 (GPR27), of which have been previously associated with initiating inflammatory mediators, phagocytosis, and other regulatory mechanisms.

CONCLUSIONS: Post-contrast MR imaging is able to detect meningeal injury and has a unique biological signature observed through gene expression. These findings suggest an acute inflammatory response occurs in response to injury to the meninges following a concussion.

Language: en