Gene Expression Pathways Implicated in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Symptomatic Improvement

Military service members often return from deployment with a multiplicity of injuries, including mild traumatic brain injury, depression, and sleep disorders, which obsures diagnosis of PTSD symptoms and complicates treatment of PTSD. In order to understand the biological mechanisms underlying PTSD, gene expression profiles of military service members with and without PTSD were compared. Additionally, gene expression was examined based on intrusion symptoms, a distinct subtype of PTSD symptoms, and on improvement of PTSD symptoms at a three month follow up. RNA was extracted from blood samples and hybridized to the HG-U133_Plus_2 Affymetrix chip. Gene expression of subjects with PTSD (n=39) were compared to controls without PTSD (n=27) at baseline. Further analysis of gene expression for subjects with PTSD at follow-up was based on improvement or lack of improvement in PTSD symtpoms. 109 Samples (not all subjects had follow-up data) were analyzed in total.