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METHODS article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Disorders: Autoinflammatory Disorders
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1381002
This article is part of the Research Topic Community Series in Towards Precision Medicine for Immune-Mediated Disorders: Advances in Using Big Data and Artificial Intelligence to Understand Heterogeneity in Inflammatory Responses, Volume II View all 8 articles

The causal relationship between immune cells and diabetic retinopathy: a Mendelian randomization study

Provisionally accepted
Yunyan Ye Yunyan Ye 1*Lei Dai Lei Dai 2Hong Gu Hong Gu 3Lan Yang Lan Yang 4Zhangxing XU Zhangxing XU 1Zhiguo Li Zhiguo Li 4
  • 1 Department of Ophthalmology, Li Huili Hospital Affiliated with Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
  • 2 Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Ningbo Medical Centre Li Huili Hospital, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China
  • 3 Department of Ophthalmology,Department of Ophthalmology, Ningbo, China
  • 4 Department of Ophthalmology,Li Huili Hospital Affiliated with Ningbo University, Ningbo, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Purpose: To explore the causal relationship between immune cells and diabetic retinopathy (DR) using single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as an instrumental variable and Mendelian randomization (MR). Methods: Statistical data were collected from a publicly available genome-wide association study (GWAS), and SNPs that were significantly associated with immune cells were used as instrumental variables (IVs). Inverse variance weighted (IVW) and MR‒Egger regression were used for MR analysis. Sensitivity analysis was used to test the heterogeneity, horizontal pleiotropy, and stability of the results. Results: We investigated the causal relationship between 731 immune cells and DR risk. All the GWAS data were obtained from European populations and from males and females. The IVW analysis revealed that HLA DR on CD14+ CD16- monocytes, HLA DR on CD14+ monocytes, HLA DR on CD33-HLA DR+, HLA DR on CD33+ HLA DR+ CD14- on CD33+ HLA DR+ CD14dim and HLA DR on myeloid dendritic cells may increase the risk of DR (P<0.05). The HLA DR to CD14-CD16- cells, the monocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cell absolute count, the SSC-A count of CD4+ T cells, and the terminally differentiated CD4+ T cells may be protective factors against DR (P<0.05). Sensitivity analysis indicated no heterogeneity or pleiotropy among the selected SNPs. Furthermore, gene annotation of the SNPs revealed significant associations with 10 genes related to the risk of developing PDR and potential connections with 12 other genes related to PDR. Conclusion: Monocytes and T cells may serve as new biomarkers or therapeutic targets, leading to the development of new treatment options for managing DR.

    Keywords: Mendelian randomization, immune cells, Diabetic Retinopathy, proliferative diabetic retinopathy, Causal effect

    Received: 02 Feb 2024; Accepted: 18 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Ye, Dai, Gu, Yang, XU and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yunyan Ye, Department of Ophthalmology, Li Huili Hospital Affiliated with Ningbo University, Ningbo, China

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