Abstract

Abstract Background and Aims Interleukins (ILs), key cytokine family of inflammatory response, are closely associated with kidney function. However, the causal effect of various ILs on kidney function needs further investigation. Method We performed two-sample summary-level mendelian randomization (MR) analysis (Fig. 1). Genetic variants with strong association with serum IL levels were obtained from a previous genome-wide association study meta-analysis. Summary-level data for eGFR were obtained from CKDGen database. A replication analysis was performed in the independent UK Biobank data. As a main MR analysis, multiplicative random-effect inverse-variance weighed method was performed. Pleiotropy-robust MR analysis, including MR-Egger with bootstrapped error and weighed-median methods, were also implemented. Results We tested the causal estimates from nine ILs on eGFR traits. Among ILs, we found that genetically predicted serum IL-1ra level showed consistently significant association (P <0.05) with eGFR, also supported by significant (P <0.05) pleiotropy-robust MR results. Using 20 SNPs (18 of pQTL and 2 of eQTL SNPs), genetically predicted higher serum IL-1ra level was significantly associated (<0.05) with higher eGFR in multiplicative random effect IVW analysis (Fig. 2). In addition, the result was consistent towards eGFR decline phenotype of the outcome database. Otherwise, nonsignificant association was identified between other genetically predicted ILs and eGFR outcome (Fig. 3). Conclusion These findings support the clinical importance of IL-1 associated pathway in relation to kidney function in the general individuals, particularly highlighting the importance of IL-1ra.

Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call