The role of the progesterone receptor PROGINS variant in the development of fibromyalgia syndrome and its psychological findings

Abstract

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), a chronic pain disorder of unknown etiology, is more common in women. This suggests that biological sex is important. Therefore, we performed an analysis to determine whether the progesterone receptor (P GR) gene Alu insertion (named P ROGINS) variant is associated with an increased risk of FMS in the Turkish population. A total of 288 subjects, including 138 patients diagnosed with FMS according to the 2016 American College of Rheumatology criteria and 150 healthy subjects, were evaluated. Genotyping of the P GR P ROGINS variant was determined by polymerase chain reaction (P CR) analysis. The results of the analyses were evaluated for statistical significance. There were no subjects in the control group carrying the T2 allele. The P GR P ROGINS T1/T2 genotype was more prevalent in both all patients and female patients compared to all controls and female controls (p = 0.001, p = 0.003, respectively). A statistically significant relationship was observed in both all patients and female patients when compared to the control group according to T1/T1 vs. T1/T2+T2/T2 (p < 0.000, p < 0.001, respectively). The current study suggests that the P GR Alu insertion variant T2 allele might influence FMS susceptibility in the Turkish population. Large-sample sizes and studies of different ethnicities are required to further evaluate the association between this variant and FMS.

Keywords:

• Fibromyalgia syndrome
• progesterone receptor
• insertion
• variant
• PCR

Authors’ contributions

S.Y. and A.F.N designed the study. A.C.T. and N.K collected the data. S.Y. and A.F.N analyzed the data and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All the authors edited and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Ethics statement

Ethical committee approval was received from the Ethics Committee of the Hitit University Clinical Research Ethics Committee (Decision number: 2020/150).

Informed consent

Written informed consent was obtained from subjects and patients who participated in this study.

Additional information

Funding

The study was carried out with the financial support of the Scientific Research Projects Unit of the University of Hitit (Project No: TIP19001.20.007).