Association between homocysteine and aortic aneurysms: A mendelian randomization study

Abstract

Abstract Background The causal association of higher homocysteine (Hcy) with aortic aneurysms (AAs) remain unclear. We aim to employed a multivariable Mendelian randomization (MR) to investigate the causal effects of Hcy on the risk of AAs. Methods Genetically predicted Hcy was selected as an instrumental variable from a published genome-wide association study meta-analysis. AAs (including thoracic aortic aneurysm [TAA] and abdominal aortic aneurysm [AAA]) data was extracted as outcome variables from FinnGen cohort. The random-effects inverse variance-weighted (IVW) model was applied as the main method, along with sensitivity analysis. Results We found a genetically determined 1-standard deviation (SD) increment of Hcy did not cause the increased risk of AAs (OR = 0.85; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.67–1.10) based on the IVW method. which was consistent with the results of other different MR analysis methods. Similar results were found in the analysis of TAA (IVW: OR = 0.86; 95% CI, 0.70–1.05) and AAA (IVW: OR = 0.91; 95% CI, 0.60–1.39). Conclusions This study provided evidence that higher Hcy did not direct causally increased the risk of AAs, TAA, or AAA.