Association between hypothyroidism and nephrotic syndrome: a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis.

BACKGROUND

There is a close clinical association between hypothyroidism and nephrotic syndrome (NS) was close, but whether there is genetic causality between the two is not known.

OBJECTIVE

Using pooled data from a genome-wide association study (GWAS), the association between hypothyroidism and NS was explored Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis.

METHODS

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with hypothyroidism (or NS) were screened as genetic instrumental variables (IVs) from pooled GWAS data, and inverse-variance weighting (IVW) was used for the main analysis to estimate causal effects, with MR-Egger, weighted median, and weighted mode used as complementary methods. Sensitivity analyses, including Cochran's Q test, MR-Egger intercept, MR-PRESSO and leave-one-out, were also conducted to assess the robustness of the results.

RESULTS

Genetically predicted hypothyroidism was positively associated with the risk of developing NS (IVW: OR = 1.18, 95% CI: 1.07-1.30,  = 0.00; MR-Egger: OR = 1.36, 95% CI: 1.10-1.68,  = 0.01), and the MR-Egger intercept (intercept = -0.02,  = 0.14), MR-PRESSO test ( = 0.14), Cochran's Q test ( = 0.15) and leave-one-out test results supported the robustness of the results. Genetically predicted NS status might not be associated with an increased risk of developing hypothyroidism (IVW: OR = 1.01, 95% CI: 1.00-1.03,  = 0.08; MR-Egger: OR = 1.01, 95% CI: 0.98-1.04,  = 0.43), and the MR-Egger intercept (intercept < 0.01,  = 0.69), MR-PRESSO test ( = 0.64), Cochran's Q test ( = 0.61) and leave-one-out test results supported the robustness of the results.

CONCLUSION

Hypothyroidism status could increase the risk of developing NS.