Insignificant Difference in Early Post-injury Gene Expression Between Patients with Burns Only and Those with Inhalation Injury: A Bioinformatics Analysis

Abstract

Airway obstruction is fatal but common among burn patients in the early period after inhalation injury, during which most tracheotomies are performed within 48 h post-injury. Inflammation is common in laryngoscopy; however, the related gene expression has rarely been studied. In this study, we obtained the data of healthy control and patient samples collected within 8–48 h post injury from the Gene Expression Omnibus database and classified them into 10 inhalation-injury patients, 6 burn-only, and 10 healthy controls. Differential gene expression (DEG) was identified between the patient groups; however, principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis indicated a similarity between groups. Further, enrichment analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and gene set enrichment analyses (GSEA) showed no significant differences in immune regulation and cell adjustment between the patient groups; but differences were shown when comparing either patient group to the healthy control group, including prominent regulation in inflammatory cells, infection, and cell adjustment. Thus, the gene expression in inhalation injury and burn-only patients does not significantly differ in the early period after injury, especially in inflammation, indicating the absence of specific diagnostic markers or anti-inflammatory treatment in inhalation injury patients, with the potential to identify more subtle difference. Further research is warranted.