Whole blood transcriptomic profiles can differentiate vulnerability to chronic low back pain
Fig 3
Unbiased pathway analysis demonstrates significant enrichment for extracellular matrix genes in chronic T5 versus the normal control group and the antigen presentation pathway (MHC class I and II) genes in the chronic T1 patients compared with the acute group.
Using the Impact Analysis method in iPathway (Advaita Corporation), we conducted unbiased pathway analysis. Each pathway diagram is overlayed with the computed perturbation of each gene. The perturbation accounts both for the gene's measured fold change and for the accumulated perturbation propagated from any upstream genes (accumulation). The highest negative perturbation is shown in dark blue, while the highest positive perturbation is shown in dark red. The legend describes the values on the gradient in logFC. Note: For legibility, one gene may be represented in multiple places in the diagram and one box may represent multiple genes in the same gene family. A gene is highlighted in all locations it occurs in the diagram. For each gene family, the color corresponding to the gene with the highest absolute perturbation is displayed. (A) Top differentially regulated pathway in the chronic T5 versus normal group is extracellular matrix (ECM)-receptor interaction (KEGG: 04512; p = 0.005). (B) Bar graph of individual gene display for the ECM-receptor interaction pathway. The signed perturbation is represented with negative values in blue and positive values in red. The box and whisker plot on the left summarizes the distribution of all gene perturbations in this pathway. The box represents the 1st quartile, the median and the 3rd quartile, while circles represent the outliers. (C) Top differentially regulated pathway in the chronic T1 versus acute group is antigen processing and presentation (KEGG: 04612; p = 0.006). (D) Bar graph individual gene display for the antigen processing and presentation pathway. The signed perturbation is represented with negative values in blue and positive values in red. The box and whisker plot on the left summarizes the distribution of all gene perturbations in this pathway. The box represents the 1st quartile, the median and the 3rd quartile, while circles represent the outliers.