Mitochondrial polymorphisms impact outcomes after severe traumatic brain injury

Patient outcomes are variable following severe traumatic brain injury (TBI); however, the biological underpinnings explaining this variability are unclear. Mitochondrial dysfunction after TBI is well documented, particularly in animal studies. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of mitochondrial polymorphisms on mitochondrial function and patient outcomes out to 1 year after a severe TBI in a human adult population. The Human MitoChip V2.0 was used to evaluate mitochondrial variants in an initial set of n=136 subjects. SNPs found to be significantly associated with patient outcomes [Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS), Neurobehavioral Rating Scale (NRS), Disability Rating Scale (DRS), in-hospital mortality, and hospital length of stay] or neurochemical level (lactate:pyruvate ratio from cerebrospinal fluid) were further evaluated in an expanded sample of n=336 subjects. A10398G was associated with DRS at 6 and 12 months (p=0.02) and a significant time by SNP interaction for DRS was found (p=0.0013). The A10398 allele was associated with greater disability over time. There was a T195C by sex interaction for GOS (p=0.03) with the T195 allele associated with poorer outcomes in females. This is consistent with our findings that the T195 allele was associated with mitochondrial dysfunction (p=0.01), but only in females. This is the first study associating mitochondrial DNA variation with both mitochondrial function and neurobehavioral outcomes after TBI in humans. Our findings indicate that mitochondrial DNA variation may impact patient outcomes after a TBI potentially by influencing mitochondrial function, and that sex of the patient may be important in evaluating these associations in future studies.