Assessment of causal association between thyroid function and lipid metabolism: a Mendelian randomization study

• 作者: Wang Jing-Jia Zhuang Zhen-Huang Shao Chun-Li Yu Can-Qing Wang Wen-Yao Zhang Kuo Meng Xiang-Bin Gao Jun Tian Jian Zheng Ji-Lin Huang Tao Tang Yi-Da
• 来源期刊: 中华医学杂志英文版
• 关键词: Dyslipidemia Mendelian randomization Analysis Lipids Thyroid hormones
• 年，卷（期）: 2021,（9）
• 所属期刊栏目: Original Article
• 页码范围: 1064-1069
• 页数: 6页
• 语种: 中文
• DOI: 10.1097/CM9.0000000000001505

摘要

Background::Thyroid dysfunction is associated with cardiovascular diseases. However, the role of thyroid function in lipid metabolism remains partly unknown. The present study aimed to investigate the causal association between thyroid function and serum lipid metabolism via a genetic analysis termed Mendelian randomization (MR).Methods::The MR approach uses a genetic variant as the instrumental variable in epidemiological studies to mimic a randomized controlled trial. A two-sample MR was performed to assess the causal association, using summary statistics from the Atrial Fibrillation Genetics Consortium ( n = 537,409) and the Global Lipids Genetics Consortium ( n = 188,577). The clinical measures of thyroid function include thyrotropin (TSH), free triiodothyronine (FT3) and free thyroxine (FT4) levels, FT3:FT4 ratio and concentration of thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPOAb). The serum lipid metabolism traits include total cholesterol (TC) and triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein, and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels. The MR estimate and MR inverse variance-weighted method were used to assess the association between thyroid function and serum lipid metabolism. Results::The results demonstrated that increased TSH levels were significantly associated with higher TC ( β = 0.052, P = 0.002) and LDL ( β = 0.041, P = 0.018) levels. In addition, the FT3:FT4 ratio was significantly associated with TC ( β = 0.240, P = 0.033) and LDL ( β = 0.025, P = 0.027) levels. However, no significant differences were observed between genetically predicted FT4 and TPOAb and serum lipids. Conclusion::Taken together, the results of the present study suggest an association between thyroid function and serum lipid metabolism, highlighting the importance of the pituitary-thyroid-cardiac axis in dyslipidemia susceptibility.