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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrigenomics
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1433754
This article is part of the Research Topic The Intersection of Genes, Nutrition and Disease: A Nutritional Perspective from Mendelian Randomization to Disease Pathogenic Mechanisms View all 4 articles

Causal relationships between obesity-related anthropometric indicators and sepsis risk: A Mendelian-randomization study

Provisionally accepted
Chuchu Zhang Chuchu Zhang 1Jiajia Ren Jiajia Ren 1Xi Xu Xi Xu 1Hua Lei Hua Lei 1Guorong Deng Guorong Deng 1Jueheng Liu Jueheng Liu 1Xiaoming Gao Xiaoming Gao 1Jiamei Li Jiamei Li 1Xiaochuang Wang Xiaochuang Wang 1Gang Wang Gang Wang 1,2*
  • 1 Department of Critical Care Medicine, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
  • 2 Key Laboratory of Surgical Critical care and Life Support, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China

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    Background: Previous studies have reported an association between obesity and risk of sepsis. However, the results have been inconsistent, and no causal inference can be drawn from them. Therefore, we conducted a Mendelian-randomization (MR) study to investigate causal relationships between available obesity-related anthropometric indicators and sepsis risk. Methods: We performed MR analyses using genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics on 14 anthropometric indicators (namely body mass index [BMI], waist and hip circumferences [WC, HC], basal metabolic rate [BMR], whole-body fat mass [WBFM], trunk fat mass [TFM], leg fat mass [LFM], arm fat mass [AFM], body fat percentage [BFP], whole-body fat-free mass [WBFFM], trunk fat-free mass [TFFM], leg fat-free mass [LFFM], arm fat-free mass [AFFM], and whole-body water mass [WBWM]), sepsis, critical care sepsis, and 28-day death due to sepsis from the UK Biobank and FinnGen cohort. The primary method of MR analysis was inverse variance-weighted average method. Sensitivity analyses, including heterogeneity and horizontal-pleiotropy tests, were conducted to assess the stability of the MR results. Additionally, we applied multiple-variable MR (MVMR) to evaluate the effect of BMI on the relationship between each anthropometric indicator and sepsis risk. Results: Our MR analysis demonstrated causal relationships between 14 anthropometric indicators and sepsis of different severities. After we adjusted for BMI, MVMR analyses indicated that WC, BMR, LFM, WBFFM, TFFM, AFFM, and WBWM remained significantly associated with the presence of sepsis (all P<0.05). A sensitivity analysis confirmed the reliability of our MR results, and no significant horizontal pleiotropy was detected. Conclusion: This MR study revealed that increases in obesity-related anthropometric indicators had causal associations with a higher risk of sepsis, which might provide important insights for the identification of individuals at risk for sepsis in community and hospital settings.

    Keywords: Anthropometric indicator, Inflammation, Mendelian randomization, Obesity, Sepsis

    Received: 16 May 2024; Accepted: 10 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zhang, Ren, Xu, Lei, Deng, Liu, Gao, Li, Wang and Wang. 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: Gang Wang, Department of Critical Care Medicine, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China

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