Genetically predicted circulating serum homocysteine levels on osteoporosis: a two-sample mendelian randomization study

Abstract

To investigate the causal relationship between circulating serum homocysteine (Hcy) levels and osteoporosis (OP). Using public datasets gathered from independently published genome-wide association studies (GWAS), Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was done to investigate the causal influence of Hcy on OP. SNPs were selected from a meta-analysis of GWAS on Hcy concentrations in 44,147 individuals of European ancestry. Meanwhile, SNPs of individuals of European descent for OP were extracted from the Genetic Factors of Osteoporosis Consortium (GEFOS) UK Biobank. The odds ratio (OR) of inverse variance weighted (IVW) approaches was established as the primary outcome. Moreover, weighted median (WM) and MR-Egger regressions were included in the sensitivity analysis. There were no causal effects of Hcy on forearm bone mineral density and lumbar bone mineral density according to IVW, MR-Egger, and WM analyses (all p > 0.05). In the IVW, we discovered the causality between genetically predicted Hcy and heel bone mineral density (H-BMD) with an OR of 0.96 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.927–0.990, p = 0.011]. In the additional sensitivity analysis, WM regression (OR = 0.97, 95% CI = 0.995–1.076, p = 0.084) and MR-Egger regression (OR = 0.98, 95% CI = 0.918–1.049, p = 0.609) yielded values that were comparable in direction but less precise. The MR-Egger intercept, funnel plot, and IVW all indicate the absence of any discernible directional pleiotropy. The leave-one-out analysis revealed that a single SNP did not influence the results of the MR analysis. In conclusion, our MR investigation revealed evidence of a causal relationship between circulating serum Hcy levels and H-BMD, but not OP in the European population. However, larger sample sizes are needed in the future to get more reliable conclusions.