Dr Andrew Stevenson¹, Dr.  Gemma Cadby², Dr. Hilary  Wallace³, Dr. Phillip Melton³, Professor Fiona Wood^1,4, Ms. Sian Falder⁵, Ms. Margaret  Crowe⁴, Dr. Lisa Martin^1,4, Ms. Karen Marlow⁵, Dr. Sarah  Ward³, A/Prof. Mark Fear¹

¹Burn Injury Research Unit, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Australia, ²Genetic epidemiology group, UWA School of Population and Global Health, Nedlands, Australia, ³UWA School of Population and Global Health , Crawley, Australia, ⁴Burn Service of Western Australia, Murdoch, Australia, ⁵Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Abstract:

There is considerable variability in scarring between individuals after similar extent of injury, in part due to genetic factors. This study aimed to identify genetic variants associated with scar

vascularity after burn injury. An exome-wide array association study was performed on a prospective cohort of 665 patients treated for burn injury. The outcome measure was the scar vascularity (SV) sub-score of the modified Vancouver Scar Scale – observing the scar at rest, then blanching the scar and observing the rate of blood return. Normal colour was scored 0, a pink colour scored a 1, a significant increase leading to a red colour was a 2 and excessive local supply was purple and scored a 3. Associations between SV and each SNP were estimated two separate ways – the first treating vascularity as a continuous variable using a linear regression, and the second treating each colour individually as a categorical variable using a multinomial logistic regression, and comparing each to the baseline level of 0. Each outcome was adjusted by age at time of injury (continuous variable), sex (M; F), number of surgical procedures (0; 1; more than 1), % total body surface area (%TBSA) of the burn and the significant principal components. While no SNPs achieved the standard GWAS significance of P <5×10−8, there were some interesting genes approaching significance with roles in adipocyte development and metabolism, hematopoietic stem cells and hematopoiesis, suggesting that genes associated with hematopoiesis and adipocytes may be important in severity of SV after burn injury.

Biography:

Dr. Andrew Stevenson is a Postdoc at the Burn Injury Research Unit at the University of Western Australia. He has a focus on burns and a specific interest in fibroblast biology. He has a keen interest in regenerative biology and driving unique applications of technology to existing problems in burns.