Perceived discrimination influences the expression of immune response, energy homeostasis, and cancer-related pathways.
ROCKVILLE, MD (February 18, 2025) — A strong perception of experiencing discrimination correlates with differences in human gene expression by race and sex. Interestingly, some of the affected genes are involved in conditions, such as certain cancers, that are associated with aging and have disparate health outcomes, according to research published in The FASEB Journal.
Numerous studies have shown that environmental and social factors, also called the exposome, can influence gene expression. For example, experiencing poor housing conditions, poverty, and stress can make people more susceptible to developing chronic diseases. Similarities in responses to negative social conditions led researchers to develop the conserved transcriptional response to adversity (CTRA), which describes an increase in inflammation gene expression and decrease in immune gene expression common to those experiencing grief, loneliness, low socioeconomic status, and other negative social conditions. However, the effects of race were not examined in these studies, and other reports that took race into account did not typically observe differences in CTRA gene expression.
Discrimination can isolate people socially, and it can affect their health. Researchers at the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health; Kansas City University; New York University; University of Houston; and Rutgers University previously investigated this topic in relation to race. In that work, the authors found that perceived discrimination in African American adults was associated with red blood cell oxidative stress, poor kidney function, and greater white matter lesion volume.
In the current work, the team wanted to see how the experience of discrimination shapes gene expression. Middle-aged African American and white men and women living in urban Baltimore, Maryland, filled out questionnaires on lifetime and racial discrimination. Then, the team analyzed the total RNA in immune cells from participants’ blood samples.
The team did not find significant variations in gene expression in those who experienced high overall perceived discrimination compared to those with a low level. They also did not observe significant differences in the levels of RNA specifically from CTRA genes.
However, differences surfaced when the high discrimination group was analyzed further. African American and White adults in this group differentially expressed 28 genes, some of which were associated with immune responses, inflammation, and tumorigenesis. Compared with each other, African American and white men, as well as African American and white women, significantly expressed various genes at different levels. The team also observed variations in biological pathways and processes involving the differentially expressed genes. Many disease processes were distinct based on sex and race. In another analysis of the data, several diseases and conditions that have disparate health outcomes were altered in the samples.
“Our data highlight the importance of a comprehensive exposome approach that includes race and ethnicity and discrimination, as well as systemic and structural racism that influence the internal cellular environment to understand the role of external environmental factors in health and disease,” the authors wrote in the article.
Funding: National Institute on Aging Intramural Reseaerch Program, National Institutes of Health
Read the full article, "," published in The FASEB Journal.
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