Figure 3.
The protective role of resilience on immune-related blood biomarkers admits trauma exposures. (a) Heatmap displaying the partial correlations of 25 blood biomarkers, significantly mediating the relationship between trauma exposure and affective disorders (p<0.001), with trauma exposure and resilience scores. Covariates (age, sex, site, education years, and BMI) were controlled. Of these, 15 biomarkers overlapped, showing opposite correlation directions between trauma exposure and resilience. The correlation pattern between the 25 biomarkers’ associations with trauma and resilience was inverse, with a correlation coefficient of r=−0.833 and p<0.001, determined by a permutation test with 1000 iterations. (b) Bar plot comparing the correlations between the same 25 mediating blood biomarkers and affective symptoms (PHQ scores) in resilient and vulnerable groups, illustrating resilience’s moderating effect. Among these, 13 biomarkers showed significantly weaker correlations with affective symptoms in the resilient group compared to the vulnerable group (pfdr<0.05).