Depatment of Tradition Chinese Medicine, West China Second Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
Key Laboratory of Birth Defects and Related Diseases of Women and Children (Sichuan University), Ministry of Education, Chengdu, China.
Arch Dermatol Res. 2024 Aug 5;316(8):504. doi: 10.1007/s00403-024-03241-4.
Observational studies have shown a strong association between circulating white blood cell counts (WBC) and inflammatory skin diseases such as acne and psoriasis. However, the causal nature of this relationship is unclear. We performed a two-way two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to investigate potential causal relationships between leukocytes and inflammatory skin diseases. The circulating white blood cell count, basophil cell count, leukocyte cell count, lymphocyte cell count, eosinophil cell count, and neutrophil cell count data were obtained from the Blood Cell Consortium (BCX). The data for inflammatory skin disorders, including acne, atopic dermatitis (AD), hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), psoriasis, and seborrheic dermatitis (SD), were obtained from the FinnGen Consortium R10. The primary analysis utilized inverse variance weighting (IVW) along with additional methods such as MR-Egger, weighted mode, and weighted median estimator. To assess heterogeneity among instrument variables, Cochran's Q test was employed, while MR-Egger intercept and MR-PRESSO were used to test for horizontal pleiotropy. IVW demonstrated that an elevated monocyte count was significantly associated with a decreased risk of psoriasis (OR = 0.897, 95% CI: 0.841-0.957, P = 0.001, FDR = 0.016). Additionally, an increased eosinophil count was causally associated with a higher risk of AD (OR = 1.188, 95% CI: 1.093-1.293, P = 0.000, FDR = 0.002). No inverse causal relationship between inflammatory skin disease and circulating white blood cell count was found. In conclusion, this study provides evidence that increased monocyte count is associated with a reduced risk of psoriasis and that there is a causal relationship between increased eosinophil counts and an increased risk of AD. These findings help us understand the potential causal role of specific white blood cell counts in the development of inflammatory skin diseases.
观察性研究表明，循环白细胞计数（WBC）与痤疮和银屑病等炎症性皮肤病之间存在很强的关联。然而，这种关系的因果性质尚不清楚。我们进行了双向两样本孟德尔随机化（MR）分析，以研究白细胞与炎症性皮肤病之间的潜在因果关系。循环白细胞计数、嗜碱性粒细胞计数、白细胞计数、淋巴细胞计数、嗜酸性粒细胞计数和中性粒细胞计数数据来自血液细胞联盟（BCX）。炎症性皮肤病的数据，包括痤疮、特应性皮炎（AD）、化脓性汗腺炎（HS）、银屑病和脂溢性皮炎（SD），来自芬兰遗传联盟 R10。主要分析采用逆方差加权（IVW）以及其他方法，如 MR-Egger、加权模式和加权中位数估计。为了评估工具变量之间的异质性，采用 Cochran's Q 检验，而 MR-Egger 截距和 MR-PRESSO 用于检验水平偏倚。IVW 表明单核细胞计数升高与银屑病风险降低显著相关（OR=0.897，95%CI：0.841-0.957，P=0.001，FDR=0.016）。此外，嗜酸性粒细胞计数增加与 AD 风险增加存在因果关系（OR=1.188，95%CI：1.093-1.293，P=0.000，FDR=0.002）。未发现炎症性皮肤病与循环白细胞计数之间存在反向因果关系。总之，本研究提供了证据表明单核细胞计数增加与银屑病风险降低有关，并且嗜酸性粒细胞计数增加与 AD 风险增加之间存在因果关系。这些发现有助于我们理解特定白细胞计数在炎症性皮肤病发展中的潜在因果作用。
