MEIS1 variant as a determinant of autonomic imbalance in Restless Legs Syndrome

Jérôme Thireau, Charlotte Farah, Nicolas Molinari, Fabrice Bouilloux, Lucas Torreilles, Juliane Winkelmann, Sabine Scholz, Sylvain Richard, Yves Dauvilliers, Frédéric Marmigère

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) is a genetically complex neurological disorder in which overlapping genetic risk factors may contribute to the diversity and heterogeneity of the symptoms. The main goal of the study was to investigate, through analysis of heart rate variability (HRV), whether in RLS patients the MEIS1 polymorphism at risk influences the sympathovagal regulation in different sleep stages. Sixty-four RLS patients with periodic leg movement index above 15 per hour, and 38 controls underwent one night of video-polysomnographic recording. HRV in the frequency- and timedomains was analyzed during nighttime sleep. All RLS patients were genotyped, and homozygotes from rs2300478 in the MEIS1 locus were used from further analysis. Comparison of the sympathovagal pattern of RLS patients to control subjects did not show significant differences after adjustments from confounding factors in frequency-domain analyses, but showed an increased variability during N2 and N3 stages in time-domain analyses in RLS patients. Sorting of RLS patients according to MEIS1 polymorphism reconfirmed the association between MEIS1 and PLMS, and showed a significant increased sympathovagal balance during N3 stage in those homozygotes from the risk allele. RLS patients should be considered differently depending on MEIS1 genotype, some being potentially at risk from cardiovascular disorders.

Original languageEnglish
Article number46620
JournalScientific Reports
Volume7
DOIs
StatePublished - 2017
Externally publishedYes

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