Experiences of Racial Discrimination and Adverse Gene Expression among Black Individuals in a Level 1 Trauma Center Sample

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Brain Behav Immun
• Personal Author:
  Bird, Claire M. ; Kate Webb, E. ; Cole, Steven W. ; Tomas, Carissa W. ; Knight, Jennifer M. ; Timmer-Murillo, Sydney C. ; Larson, Christine L. ; deRoon-Cassini, Terri A. ; Torres, Lucas
• Description:
  Up to 40 % of individuals who sustain traumatic injuries are at risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the conditional risk for developing PTSD is even higher for Black individuals. Exposure to racial discrimination, including at both interpersonal and structural levels, helps explain this health inequity. Yet, the relationship between racial discrimination and biological processes in the context of traumatic injury has yet to be fully explored. The current study examined whether racial discrimination is associated with a cumulative measure of biological stress, the gene expression profile conserved transcriptional response to adversity (CTRA), in Black trauma survivors. Two-weeks (T1) and six-months (T2) post-injury, Black participants (N = 94) provided a blood specimen and completed assessments of lifetime racial discrimination and PTSD symptoms. Mixed effect linear models evaluated the relationship between change in CTRA gene expression and racial discrimination while adjusting for age, gender, body mass index (BMI), smoking history, heavy alcohol use history, and trauma-related variables (mechanism of injury, lifetime trauma). Results revealed that for individuals exposed to higher levels of lifetime racial discrimination, CTRA significantly increased between T1 and T2. Conversely, CTRA did not increase significantly over time in individuals exposed to lower levels of lifetime racial discrimination. Thus, racial discrimination appeared to lead to a more sensitized biological profile which was further amplified by the effects of a recent traumatic injury. These findings replicate and extend previous research elucidating the processes by which racial discrimination targets biological systems.
• Subjects:
  Black People Gene Expression Humans Racism Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic Trauma Centers
• Keywords:
  Injury Racial Discrimination Trauma
• Source:
  Brain Behav Immun. 116:229-236
• Pubmed ID:
  38070623
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC10872243
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  R01 MH106574/MH/NIMH NIH HHSUnited States/ ; TL1 TR001437/TR/NCATS NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01 CE002944/CE/NCIPC CDC HHSUnited States/ ; UL1 TR001436/TR/NCATS NIH HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  116
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:fd62c5b2e6a528542d938255cd23899f8a515ffb343651d35d6f76276c9cbad0947c61ee28a5685d992249236c372701034d4928e79eaa9720bd245571183731
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/169957/cdc_169957_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 449.08 KB ]