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BMC Cardiovascular Disorders
Published in: BMC Cardiovascular Disorders 1/2024

Open Access 01-12-2024 | Arterial Occlusive Disease | Research

Causality of the gut microbiome and atherosclerosis-related lipids: a bidirectional Mendelian Randomization study

Authors: Da Teng, Wenjuan Jia, Wenlong Wang, Lanlan Liao, Bowen Xu, Lei Gong, Haibin Dong, Lin Zhong, Jun Yang

Published in: BMC Cardiovascular Disorders | Issue 1/2024

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Abstract

Aims

Recent studies have indicated an association between intestinal flora and lipids. However, observational studies cannot indicate causality. In this study, we aimed to investigate the potentially causal relationships between the intestinal flora and blood lipids.

Methods

We performed a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian Randomization (MR) analysis to investigate the causal relationship between intestinal flora and blood lipids. Summary statistics of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) for the 211 intestinal flora and blood lipid traits (n = 5) were obtained from public datasets. Five recognized MR methods were applied to assess the causal relationship with lipids, among which, the inverse-variance weighted (IVW) regression was used as the primary MR method. A series of sensitivity analyses were performed to test the robustness of the causal estimates.

Results

The results indicated a potential causal association between 19 intestinal flora and dyslipidemia in humans. Genus Ruminococcaceae, Christensenellaceae, Parasutterella, Terrisporobacter, Parabacteroides, Class Erysipelotrichia, Family Erysipelotrichaceae, and order Erysipelotrichales were associated with higher dyslipidemia, whereas genus Oscillospira, Peptococcus, Ruminococcaceae UCG010, Ruminococcaceae UCG011, Dorea, and Family Desulfovibrionaceae were associated with lower dyslipidemia. After using the Bonferroni method for multiple testing correction, Only Desulfovibrionaceae [Estimate = -0.0418, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.9362–0.9826, P = 0.0007] exhibited stable and significant negative associations with ApoB levels. The inverse MR analysis did not find a significant causal effect of lipids on the intestinal flora. Additionally, no significant heterogeneity or horizontal pleiotropy for IVs was observed in the analysis.

Conclusion

The study suggested a causal relationship between intestinal flora and dyslipidemia. These findings will provide a meaningful reference to discover dyslipidemia for intervention to address the problems in the clinic.
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Causality of the gut microbiome and atherosclerosis-related lipids: a bidirectional Mendelian Randomization study
Authors
Da Teng
Wenjuan Jia
Wenlong Wang
Lanlan Liao
Bowen Xu
Lei Gong
Haibin Dong
Lin Zhong
Jun Yang
Publication date
01-12-2024
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Cardiovascular Disorders / Issue 1/2024
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2261
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12872-024-03804-3

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