To explore the causal association between the serum lipid profile and inflammatory bowel disease using bidirectional Mendelian randomisation analysis

Abstract

Background Despite studies confirming that patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) present with dyslipidaemia, the associations between IBD and the serum lipid profile have not been determined. The present study aimed to investigate the causal relationship between the serum lipid profile and IBD risk and elucidate the nature of the interactions between them.Methods Two-sample Mendelian randomisation (MR) analysis was performed to investigate the causal links between total cholesterol (TC), total triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), apolipoprotein A (Apo A), apolipoprotein B (Apo B) and lipoprotein (a) (Lp(a)) and IBD. The study was carried out using the R TwoSampleMR and Mendelian randomisation packages.Results All MR methods, including the weighted median, weighted mode, inverse-variance weighted model, MR-PRESSO, contamination mixture and MR Egger, supported a null causal relationship between TG, TC, HDL-C, LDL-C, Apo A, Apo B and Lp(a) and between IBD, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Null causal effects of lipid indices on IBD were validated through independent genome-wide association studies (GWAS), indicating that the findings are robust.Conclusion Our findings suggest that none of the seven lipid indices may be a potential risk factor for the onset of IBD. However, additional research is needed since our MR analyses cannot assess the potential non-linear causal relationship between serum lipids and IBD.