Exploration of the causal effects of leukocyte telomere length and four gastrointestinal diseases: a two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization study

• Published in: BMC gastroenterology 2023-12, Vol.23 (1), p.446-446, Article 446
• Main Authors: Wang, Haikuo, Chen, Xiaolin, Wang, Siming, Zhang, Heyun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Aging; Analysis; Biobanks; Blood cell count; Care and treatment; Cells; Confounding (Statistics); Consortia; Contamination; Development and progression; Diabetes; Diagnosis; Epidemiology; Ethnicity; Fatty liver; Gastroesophageal reflux; Gastrointestinal diseases; Genetics; Genomes; Health aspects; Irritable bowel syndrome; Leukocyte telomere length; Leukocytes; Liver; Liver diseases; Measurement; Mendelian randomization; Mental health; Observational studies; Pleiotropy; Risk factors; Single nucleotide polymorphism; Single nucleotide polymorphisms; Statistical analysis; Telomerase; Telomeres; Ulcers; Yeast
• ISSN: 1471-230X; 1471-230X
• DOI: 10.1186/s12876-023-03081-y

To explore the underlying causality between leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and four gastrointestinal diseases, we designed a two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization study. Two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) was used to explore genetic causality between LTL and four gastrointestinal diseases, including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), gastrointestinal ulcers disease (GUD), and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We utilized inverse-variance weighted (IVW) as the primary method for MR analysis. Supplementary analyses were conducted using methods such as MR-Egger regression, weighted-median, Maximum Likelihood (MaxLik), Robust adjusted profile score (MR-RAPS), Contamination mixture (ConMix), and MR-mix. Cochran's Q was calculated to check for heterogeneity. The MR-Egger regression and MR pleiotropy residual sum and outlier (MR-PRESSO) were detected for pleiotropy. The IVW analysis suggests that there may be a potential causal relationship between LTL and two diseases (odds ratio (OR): 1.062; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.003, 1.124; p = 0.038 for IBS and OR: 0.889; 95% CI: 0.798, 0.990; p = 0.032 for GERD). However, other methods do not entirely align with the results of the IVW analysis. In the reverse MR analysis, we did not find statistically significant associations between LTL and these four diseases. The current evidence does not definitively rule out a causal relationship between LTL and these four gastrointestinal diseases but suggests a potential association between LTL and IBS, or LTL and GERD. Exploring the relationship between gastrointestinal diseases and LTL may offer new insights into the onset, progression, and treatment of these diseases.