Frontiers in Genetics (Feb 2021)

The Role of C-Reactive Protein and Fibrinogen in the Development of Intracerebral Hemorrhage: A Mendelian Randomization Study in European Population

  • Biyan Wang,
  • Xiaoyu Zhang,
  • Xiaoyu Zhang,
  • Di Liu,
  • Jie Zhang,
  • Mingyang Cao,
  • Xin Tian,
  • Isinta Elijah Maranga,
  • Xiaoni Meng,
  • Qiuyue Tian,
  • Feifei Tian,
  • Weijie Cao,
  • Wei Wang,
  • Manshu Song,
  • Youxin Wang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2021.608714
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12

Abstract

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Background: The causal association of C-reactive protein (CRP) and fibrinogen on intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) remains uncertain. We investigated the causal associations of CRP and fibrinogen with ICH using two-sample Mendelian randomization.Method: We used single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with CRP and fibrinogen as instrumental variables. The summary data on ICH were obtained from the International Stroke Genetics Consortium (1,545 cases and 1,481 controls). Two-sample Mendelian randomization estimates were performed to assess with inverse-variance weighted and sensitive analyses methods including the weighted median, the penalized weighted median, pleiotropy residual sum and outlier (MR-PRESSO) approaches. MR-Egger regression was used to explore the pleiotropy.Results: The MR analyses indicated that genetically predicted CRP concentration was not associated with ICH, with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.263 (95% CI = 0.935–1.704, p = 0.127). Besides, genetically predicted fibrinogen concentration was not associated with an increased risk of ICH, with an OR of 0.879 (95% CI = 0.060–18.281; p = 0.933). No evidence of pleiotropic bias was detected by MR-Egger. The findings were overall robust in sensitivity analyses.Conclusions: Our findings did not support that CRP and fibrinogen are causally associated with the risk of ICH.

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